


Staring into the Abyss

by Kizmet



Series: Tear Me Down [3]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Horror, Human Experimentation, anime based
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-01-18 08:47:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 57,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1422034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“To Be Good” sequel.  After being exiled from Japan Yukio ends up working at his Grandfather’s weapons laboratory, but Rin is never far from his thoughts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Family Connections

Yukio stood at the edge of the viewing platform staring out over the city of Rio de Janeiro. His heavy Exorcist’s coat folded neatly over his arm, the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over him. 

“So you came,” an aged voice declared.

Yukio turned and saw a thick-set man, the top half of his face covered by a mask. “I could hardly refuse an invitation from my grandfather,” he said.

“You look so very much like your mother,” Egin said quietly. “She was a foolish, headstrong child but it seems I miss her more everyday.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Yukio said coldly. “Until today I’d never even seen a picture of her.”

Egin looked sad. “The Vatican ordered Yuri’s execution to try to regain the appearance of control. After the Blue Night they only wanted to forget that she’d ever existed. The Blue Night cost me everything: My position, my face, my honor, my only daughter. For a time I was completely without hope, and then Shiro gave me this.” Egin held out a locket, it opened to reveal a picture of Rin and Yukio as small children.

“You couldn’t come for us without drawing the Vatican’s attention,” Yukio realized.

Egin nodded. “Shiro was the one sent to deal with Yuri after her escape. A month after the Blue Night he returned to Rome. Shiro reported that he’d done as ordered, that he found Yuri and killed both her and her two new-born children. And then he resigned as Paladin. He said that was the last order of from the Grigori that he would ever follow.” Egin explained. “They let him go and were thankful he was willing to go quietly. He retired to a small monastery in Japan.”

“Where he raised Rin and I,” Yukio realized. “With no one the wiser because the Grigori was afraid of what he might say if anyone disturbed his ‘retirement’.”

“Walk with me?” Egin requested. Yukio fell in beside his grandfather. “Much like you I came to this place as an exile. I’d lost family, position. After Rome this seemed like the deepest of backwaters. But I’ve found this place has an energy to it, I hope you will come to see it as well. Here, far away from the stultifying air of Rome I had an epiphany.” 

Egin led Yukio a small service elevator, almost hidden behind the larger ones for the ease of tourists coming up to the viewing platform. He activated the elevator with a key hung round his neck. The elevator descended rapidly, dropping well below the four stories of the public elevators into the heart of the mountain itself. When the doors opened Yukio saw a gleaming laboratory, and beyond that a vast stockpile of weapons. Dozens of Exorcists in white lab coats rushed about with tablets, vials or securely locked, mysterious boxes. Everyone looked busy and focused.

“From my exile I shall rise again and lead the True Cross Order into the future.” Egin declared. “For 600 years the Order has been mired in tradition, mindlessly plodding on, fighting a war that will never be won. But from this weapons research facility we will remake the rules of this war. No longer will we borrow our strength from the traitors of the demon race or their more easily swayed brethren. Here we create human weapons to finally put us on equal footing with the demons.”

Yukio looked around the facility in amazement.

“Humanity has always been on the defensive against demons. We pick off the cannon fodder they send into Assiah with relative ease but their generals rarely take the field and we never even try to take the fight to them. No one has ever won a war fighting defensively,” Egin continued. “The ultimate goal of our organization is nothing less than the complete and total destruction of Gehenna. Then and only then will we truly be free of demonic influence.”

Yukio thought of Rin, his demonic power gone, not just sealed by the Koma Sword’s sheath, and smiled. Maybe there was still a way he could get around Mephisto and fix Rin.

“We are a long way from that goal,” Egin admitted. “Although we are making good progress in developing weapons that are effective against higher level demons. I believe you filed tested some of our bullets…”

Yukio remembered Kuro falling and Rin’s anguished howls. “I’d estimate that they had at least a hundred times the stopping power of my normal bullets,” he said without inflection.

Egin looked pleased. “This is where they were developed. As both a Doctor and a Dragoon you are particularly suited to appreciate our work here,” he said. “In addition to munitions we also have a number of divisions developing toxins that are effective against demons and a variety of delivery vectors.”

They passed by an opening to an isolated terrace about half-way down the side of the mountain. Yukio glanced outside and froze. Rin was sunning himself on the low wall at marking the edge of the terrace. 

Several moments later Yukio remembered to breathe. The slim, angular man leaning back on his elbows, drinking in the late afternoon sun looked to be around twenty. The pointed tips of his ears poked through hair several inches longer than Rin’s and the tail sprawling beside him had several distinct kinks from having been broken more than once in his past. Not Rin, but the resemblance was still uncanny.

“Who is that?” Yukio choked out.

Egin’s gaze followed Yukio’s and he scowled. “Subject 106. He’s one of the most docile, we allow him a few liberties due to his good behavior.”

At the sound of their voices the man -demon- turned toward them. Yukio gasped, where his left eyes should have been was a gaping, empty socket. Faded scars ran across his cheek like tear-tracks from his missing eye.

The one-eyed demon rolled to his feet and bounded over to them with a wide smile. “Hello Grandfather!” he exclaimed. Yukio frowned, for a moment he couldn’t put his finger on what was bothering him, then it hit him. If Rin had sounded like that his tail would have been up, twitching uncontrollably, but this demon- his cousin? His tail was wrapped submissively around his thigh. Still smiling brightly the demon continued, “Tell your poisoners they’re getting better, I barely tasted the crap that had me throwing up all morning.”

To Yukio’s shock Egin slapped the young man. “Address me properly.”

The one-eyed demon immediately dropped to his knees before them. “Lord Egin, the poison I was dosed with this morning was almost undetectable. If not for the charcoal treatments afterwards I’d actually get to enjoy a meal.”

“We don’t have to treat you,” Egin said coldly and got a shrug in reply. 

“Honestly sir, I think I’m building up a pretty good immunity.”

“I think you’ve been out long enough 106,” Egin stated. “Go back to your cage.”

Yukio watched the one-eyed demon walk away. “He called you ‘grandfather’.”

“106 was a mistake,” Egin grimaced. “There is one truth you are going to have to come to understand here: There is no such thing as a half-demon. You might have a demon parent and a human parent but you are either demon or human, there is no in-between.”

Yukio didn’t agree or disagree.

After a moment Egin continued. “I am going to usher in a new era of peace. I’d like you, as the last of my family, to be with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally planned to avoid everything to do with Ernst Frederick Egin for a couple reasons, first because I see that last arc of the anime as Yukio’s story and second because it ends things much too quickly given everything I’ve been putting Rin through. But some of the feedback from “To Be Good”, particularly from taiShafie, got me thinking more about Yukio. And suddenly that this is Yukio’s story isn’t a problem anymore. 
> 
> The speed at which things wrap up on the other hand… So this story is only very loosely based on the Anime arc. Egin’s base of operations is now in Brazil, because I sent Yukio there. He has been in exile the last fifteen years rather than imprisoned (because it never made much sense to me that he was imprisoned and developing the Messiah Bomb, of course that could have been just a lie to justify not making contact with Yukio and Rin earlier). Anyway, Egin’s plans are in a much earlier stage, the Messiah Bomb is still only goal and he’s not ready to oust the Grigori at this exact moment.


	2. Into Exile

Eight Weeks Earlier

_“Why are you wasting your time here?” Maruta asked._

_‘Maruta was always too stubborn to give up on lost causes,’ Yukio thought ignoring the heavy set priest. He smiled at his customer, “That will be 2000 yen. You’ll want to put three tablespoons down your drain every night before you go to bed. That should keep the black ooze away.” He walked the old woman to the door then turned the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’._

_“Making a living passing off years of Demon Pharmacology training as new age, holistic crap to people too ‘modern’ to believe in evil? You’re better than this Yukio,” Maruta said._

_Yukio closed down the shop for the night and headed home. He took a completely unnecessary train ride, detoured through several alleys to lose Maruta, then he took the train back to the station he’d left from and climbed a narrow rickety step of stairs to the third story of the building across the street from the shop._

_From the shop’s register Yukio could look up and see his front door at any time, it was the best thing about the apartment in Yukio’s opinion. He unlocked three different locks on that front door and let himself into the cramped little apartment. “Ni-san, I’m home,” Yukio called._

_His only answer was soft, steady breathing. Most of the apartment’s floor was taken up by large futon. A kitchen was crowded into one corner, an IV pole stood at the top corner of the futon furthest from the door and kitchen, there was a catheter leading to a drainage bag at the bottom corner on the same side. Rin lay flat on his back his eyes closed, his face peaceful._

_Yukio smiled, he crawled on the bed to sit beside Rin. “Maruta came by the shop again today, but don’t worry, I won’t let anyone take you away from me,” he told Rin. Then he told him about the rest of his day. How their regular customers were doing, the tourists who’d come in and browsed for a few minutes before admitting that what they were hopelessly lost and desperately praying that he spoke enough English to direct them back to the train station. While he talked he manipulated Rin’s limbs, trying to maintain a little muscle tone and improve blood circulation._

_Yukio’s fingers were cramping by the time he was done with Rin’s PT routine. He went to the little kitchen and started some water heating to make instant ramen. Really cooking took too much time, cost too much and besides it had always been Rin’s thing._

_After dinner, Yukio filled a basin with water and placed it on a low table beside the futon, then he undressed Rin and carefully bathed him before redressing him in fresh pajamas and replacing the catheter and IV. Yukio tucked Rin in and neatened up the tiny room before running down to the bath house on the next block and taking a quick shower himself._

_When he got back to the apartment Yukio changed into his own pajamas, turned on the bedside light and settled in beside Rin. He maneuvered his twin around so the Rin was laying against his chest then reached for the manga on the bedside table. He held the book so Rin could have seen it had his eyes been open and picked up the story from where he’d left off the night before._

Outside of the small airplane window the city of Rio de Janeiro came into focus before Yukio’s blank gaze. He sighed, he’d always been too much of a realist; even in his fantasies where everything had gone according to plan and no one had taken Rin away from him Yukio couldn’t picture much of a happily ever after.

He would have quit the True Cross shortly after Rin’s supposed suicide. Yukio had known he wouldn’t be able to hide Rin from Mephisto for very long while remaining on campus. But it would have been plausible for him to quit, between all his close acquaintances blaming him for Rin’s suicide and him blaming the Grigori and their deadline, no one would have been surprised. From the moment when he’d first announced Rin’s suicide he’d set out to alienated everyone he could to ensure that no one would have cared enough to look for him once he disappeared. 

He would have had to quit school as well. Without his scholarship he wouldn’t have been able to afford it and he wouldn’t have had the time while taking care of Rin. But he still would have needed access to Exorcist supplies to maintain Rin in a comatosed state. Leaving Rin alone for most of the day to work in a shop that sold the sort of supplies he needed but that wasn’t reputable enough to be on the True Cross Order’s radar would have been impossibly hard but he wouldn’t have had a choice. He would have needed the supplies, needed to make a living, and trusting anyone else with knowledge of Rin’s existence would have been unthinkable. If anyone knew Rin wasn’t dead they could betray them to the Order.

Yukio continued staring out the window even after the other passengers had disembarked. The stewardess crouched beside his seat. “Sir, are you alright? Do you need assistance?” 

Yukio glanced up at her. “Just wishing I were home,” he said. 

The stewardess gave him a sympathetic look, “Foreign exchange student?” she guessed. Yukio nodded. “It can be a little overwhelming, a whole new country, your family so far away. But I’m sure you’ll remember how exciting it can be pretty soon.”

“I didn’t really want to leave my twin behind,” Yukio said. “He gets into so much trouble without me to look out for him.” 

The stewardess patted him on the shoulder as she took his bag out of the overhead compartment and handed it to him. “Let me walk you to customs,” she offered.

“I’m fine,” he said shaking her off and stepping into the airport. 

He thought about turning around and finding another plane back to Japan but he didn’t have the money for a ticket and even if he did what was the point? He’d been exiled and Mephisto had plenty of power to enforce it. Simple practicality would do most of the work Yukio had to admit. His scholarship had been transferred to the True Cross Academy of Rio, as had his posting, although his duties has been switched from teaching to basic Exorcist assignments. Yukio’s things had been boxed up and shipped ahead of him, they’d be waiting at his new dormroom. 

Rin was in Japan but Yukio had nothing else there: no job, no school, no place to stay and the people he’d spent the most of his time with for the last year all wished him dead. Yukio sighed and made his way toward customs. He wondered if Mephisto would relent and let him know when Rin was kill but he doubted it. In Yukio’s opinion the demon was more than petty enough to keep knowledge of his twin from him even after Yukio was proved right and Rin had been used up and cast aside by the Grigori.

Yukio made his way through customs in a defeated daze. He picked up his bags and stopped at the edge of the airport’s shelter and stared out at a warm but heavy downpour. He sighed and was about to step out into the rain when a voice shouted “Yo, Wimpy Four-eyes!” Yukio turned and saw a barely clad woman, her long red hair tipped with vibrant yellow, waving to him. “I heard you got transferred here, thought the least I could do was pick you up from the airport.”

“Shura,” Yukio greeted her in surprise. “What did you hear?” he asked.

“Honestly, a lot of nonsense,” Shura shrugged. “I mean, I remember how you used to always go on about how you were going to protect your brother back when you were just a little squirt.”

“Mephisto was trying to make Rin into a weapon,” Yukio said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. Rin tried to kill himself and they blamed me, sent me away. Rin was still comatosed the last time I saw him. Did you hear anything about how he’s doing?”

Shura looked at him for a moment. “The Tokyo Branch went quiet about the time I started digging,” she said. “I figured the Vatican wanted deniability if things blow up. So it’s actually true about Satan being your father?”

Yukio nodded. “I’m human; I still test myself every few months; but Rin’s not. His powers awoke last spring. He inherited Satan’s blue flame.” He scowled darkly. “Rin was never supposed to awaken.”

“Enough standing around jawing. It’s a new city, a new life, ya gotta make the most of it!” Shura wrapped an arm around Yukio’s shoulders and, after ruffling his hair unmercifully, she started dragging him off toward the car she’d borrowed from the school. She relaxed her arm a bit as Yukio stopped resisting. More quietly she said. “I’m sorry about Shiro and your brother.”

“Thanks,” Yukio said, feeling a bit less like an exile for a moment.

* * *

The next morning Yukio woke up to barren dorm room and a stack of boxes. ‘It was early,’ he thought, ‘I could start unpacking, start making a place for myself at this new school.’ Yukio considered it, and then he hung up his clothes so they wouldn’t get wrinkled but left every personal item he owned in the boxes. 

He went down to the computer lab and tried to hack his former students’ email accounts, if anyone would be talking about Rin it would be them and as an instructor he’d had some privileges with their school accounts. Yukio didn’t bother trying his own password to get on to the network, but still as soon as he started trying to access the system a message popped up on his phone.

“Nice try, but I like technology. Get over your codependency, leave your brother alone. Sincerely, Mephisto”

Yukio resisted the temptation to throw his phone. Outside of the Tokyo Branch, where Mephisto’s recent influence was most strongly felt, the Order of the True Cross leaned toward the archaic. If he wanted access to the Grigori and their agents’ communications he’d need to get stationed to the mailroom in Rome.

Then it was time for class. Yukio took a seat at the back of the auditorium feeling resentful of the necessity of wasting his time on school. There had to be something he was missing, some way of getting back to Rin. But the habits of a lifetime made even the notion of skipping school, unless for an Exorcist mission, absolutely unthinkable.

Just before the lecture started a girl slid into the seat beside him. “I don’t think I saw you around last term. Are you new?” she asked. 

Yukio scowled at her. “I’m not interested.” he stated bluntly. 

“Geez I just said hi,” the girl pouted.

“You’re utterly interchangeable with half the girls at my previous school. I’m sick of being polite and tactful. I don’t want friends, I certainly don’t want a girlfriend. This is nothing more than one of a series of obstacles set in the way of what I actually care about and I refuse to waste anymore of my time on it than absolutely necessary to satisfy the people who have authority over my life.” Yukio offered the girl a deathly cold smile. “So thank you for your desire to be friendly, but if you ever speak to me again I will be seriously tempted to shoot you.”

* * *

Two weeks passed and Yukio started falling into a routine. He attended classes in the morning and early afternoon, then spent three hours manning a phone in the True Cross call-center. During his free time he futility searched for news about Rin. His attempts to email his former colleagues bounced back, his calls never connected, he’d even resorted to writing physical letters to the priests at the Monastery but nothing had come from it yet. He searched the official Vatican communications for any mention of Rin, but the only thing he could expect to see there was an announcement of Rin’s execution. Although the names of new Exorcists were announce to the entire True Cross Organization, it wasn’t as if Rin had any chance of passing the Exam. 

Yukio had barely started his Thursday shift at the call center when Shura sauntered in. She leaned over his desk and made faces at him. The view provided by Shura’s very short cut-offs left a number of the guys at the neighboring desks gaping and one clutching his nose to stem a sudden rush of blood.

“Burn the candles in your children’s windows when you hear La Llorona, it will ward her away.” Yukio continued his call calmly. “If she persists in haunting your pool we will send a team out to drive her off.” He hung up the phone and turned to face Shura, shifting his chair back a bit to avoid her breasts. “Is there something you wanted?” he asked.

“I’ve got a nest to clear out, though I’d see if your aim’s gotten any better, wimpy four-eyes,” Shura smirked at him. 

“It’s hard to improve on perfection,” Yukio replied coolly as he stood and picked up his coat.

“Don’t be so stuffy,” Shura said. “‘Cause I’m not carrying your ass back here if you get heat stroke in that get-up.”

Yukio considered her for a moment, “I suppose, for once, your dress code isn’t completely ludicrous.” He left the coat after transferring a number of clips and grenades from his pockets his gun belts. 

A jeep was waiting for them outside. “We’re headed toward Grajau. A bunch of pets have gone missing from the neighborhoods bordering the forests. Last night a kid got taken,” Shura explained as she drove.

“Any hope?” Yukio asked. 

Shura shook her head. “Not much. They found the empty skins of the pets just inside Tijuca.”

“Chupacabra?” Yukio checked.

“Probably. They aren’t usually this bold, so I’m thinking it’s big nest,” Shura confirmed.

It didn’t take the two Exorcists long to track down the nest. Yukio looked at the narrow cave mouth cautiously. Shura grinned. “Keep the bottle corked.” she ordered and charged into the cave as she summoned her sword.

Yukio adjusted his glasses with a put-upon sigh and moved to the mouth of the cave. A few moments later the cave echoed with screeches, hissing and the woosh of Shura’s Dabo. Yukio drew his guns and set himself. A rush of squat, reptilian creatures with huge eyes and a crest of spines running down their backs exploded from the depths of the cave, trying to escape. Yukio picked them off as they emerged, never giving a step. Five minutes later the rush turned into a trickle and then died away to nothing.

Shura strolled out of the cave, smiling brilliantly, a small child clinging to her neck. “Look who beat the odds,” she said.

Yukio smiled as well. “I wondered how so many got past you,” he said.

“Well, I was planning on giving you a workout anyway.” Shura said. 

The two of them found a park ranger and left the child with him then started the hike back to their jeep. As they walked Shura snuck a sidelong look at Yukio. “I did some digging for you,” she said. “Tokyo Branch, the whole of Japan is still behind a firewall. I didn’t get anything from the order.” 

“I’m aware,” Yukio said through gritted teeth.

“But I pulled the registrar’s list for the Academy from the school’s public records.” She glanced at Yukio again. “Your brother’s not enrolled for the current term.”

Yukio’s vision greyed out. The next thing he knew Shura’s shoulder was bracing him as she lowered him to sit on a rock beside the trail. “Rin’s dead,” he whispered. 

“Only that doesn’t make sense,” Shura protested. “Why would anyone bother keeping news about your brother quiet if he’s dead? That’s not a blow-up in the Vatican’s book.”

“Mephisto would keep it quiet because he’s a bastard and he hates me,” Yukio said.

“I have been able to confirm anything,” Shura tried to reassure him. “Your brother might have just dropped out of classes, you’ve said he wasn’t into school.”

‘I left him and now Rin’s dead,’ echoed over and over again in Yukio’s mind but Shura was looking at him like she was afraid he was about to shatter and he couldn’t stand the idea of her thinking he was weak. He summoned up facade of hope, “Or maybe Rin’s still comatosed.”

Shura’s eyes widened slightly at that, she gave Yukio a more critically evaluating look. 

By the time they got back to campus Yukio had even convinced himself that Rin was still safely asleep in the hospital where Yukio had left him. But the whole thing made Yukio painfully aware that he couldn’t just stand by and tell everyone ‘I told you so’ when Rin died. The thought of Rin dying was intolerable, Yukio knew that despite all the obstacles Mephisto had placed in his way he had to do something. He would never give up on Rin, never. 

When he unlocked his dorm room Yukio found a framed picture of a woman with long curly hair and features that he recognized from the mirror sitting in the center of his bed along with a postcard showing Cristo Redentor from the observation deck at the statue’s base. On the back of the card was written, “We have so much to talk about. Your Grandfather.”


	3. Orientation

Yukio crossed the campus to the foot of Corcovado Mountain. A lower-ranked Exorcist was standing guard outside a narrow crevice in the cliff face. “Okumura Yukio, reporting for orientation,” he informed the guard crisply.

“Right, I was told to expect you.” The guard checked Yukio’s appearance against the photo on the ID badge waiting at the desk. “This gives you access to the facility. Dr. Saul Patterson, Upper 2nd Class Exorcist will conduct your orientation. Take the elevator to the twelfth level, he’ll meet you there.”

“Thank you.” Yukio accepted the badge and walked into the shadowy break in the rock. Set back out of view, in stark contrast with the raw rock walls of the crevice was a polished metal door. Yukio held his new badge up to the reader and the door slid back to reveal a utilitarian elevator. He press the button for level twelve.

A tall man with a long face and thinning brown hair was waiting when the doors opened again. “Saul Patterson, call me Saul,” the man introduced himself. 

“Yukio Okumura,” Yukio replied. 

“So you’re my new assistant,” Saul said as he led Yukio down the corridor. “I don’t know what you were told about what we do in this department but the Facility’s supply of test subjects isn’t unlimited. So we save them when we can. If a test isn’t immediately fatal the other departments bring the subjects here and we do what we can to patch them up again. You’ll want to take a lot of notes about healing rates and scarification, it makes the administration happy.” Saul pointed down a hallway. “Restrooms are around that corner. You’ll have an office in the Infirmary.”

Yukio nodded.

“Lord Egin okayed your independent research project, I’d love to know how you managed that,” Saul continued glancing over his clipboard. “You’ve been approved for five test subjects,” he paused for a moment. “Oh that explains it, intent to depower not kill. Your failures will help justify some of the overhead.” 

“It’s hardly a given that I’m going to fail,” Yukio protested.

“Sure kid,” Saul replied.   
The minute they walked into the infirmary Yukio’s attention was transfixed. The demon from the terrace, the one who looked like Rin, was sitting on one of the beds. Heavy restraints dangled unused from the sides of the bed while the one-eyed demon held a basin beneath his chin. He felt Yukio’s stare, glanced up and smiled. Then he gagged and quickly ducked his head again, a thick red liquid poured out of his mouth. When he was done vomiting he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “A lot of blood this morning. Think I’m gonna die this time Saul?” he asked cheerfully.

To Yukio’s surprise Saul walked over and ruffled the demon’s hair. “Over a little thing like this 106? Definitely not,” he said in a friendly tone. “You had ketchup with your eggs didn’t you?”

“Kills the taste of the cubeb,” the one-eyed demon admitted with a grin.

Yukio edged closer while Saul examined the read-out on the various monitors attached to the demon. “It’s really ketchup?” Yukio asked with concern.

The demon twisted around to face him and Yukio realized he’d been standing on his blind side. “Mostly,” he said with a shrug. “Daily vomiting isn’t exactly good for the throat. But Saul’s right, I’m probably not gonna kick it today… Unless I’ve got more tests scheduled?”

“No,” Saul answered as he unwound a bandage around the demon’s forearm. “Toxicology has been complaining that it skews their results if the test subjects aren’t allowed enough recovery time to maintain their baseline resistance. Lord Egin allocated a half-dozen more test subjects so you won’t be doing double duty anymore.”

The bandage came off to reveal a ragged gash on the demon’s arm. “Still bleeding, I’ll have to let toxicology know that something in that cocktail hinders healing. They’ll want to capitalize on that.” Then he turned to Yukio. “How are you at stitches?”

“Fair,” Yukio replied.

Saul stepped back and gestured for Yukio to take over. “Sutures are in the top drawer.” He glanced back at the demon. “Next time remind them to strap you down. Just because you cooperate doesn’t mean you’re not going to thrash around if you seize.”

“Oh joy, breakfast in restraints,” the demon whined as Saul moved on to check another patient.

“Where are your anesthetics?” Yukio called after him.

The one-eyed demon started laughing.

“We don’t use them on test subjects,” Saul replied matter-of-factly. “If you’re worried put on the restraints but 106 is safe enough.”

Yukio prepared the suture then hesitated. “What’s your name?” he asked thinking that talking might provide some distraction while he sewed up the gash in the demon’s arm.

“You really are a newbie,” the demon said with a guileless grin that reminded Yukio painfully of Rin. Then he went on with an relaxed cynicism that could not be further from Yukio’s image of his twin, “Subjects don’t have names. It’s so much nicer looking on the reports when it’s ‘subject 106’ who seized for twenty minutes after consuming 50 grams of powdered cubeb and assorted other nasty things instead of ‘Rene’.”

“Your name is Rene?” Yukio asked. He took a steadying breath and pushed the needle through his patient’s flesh.

“You caught it,” Rene laughed, then cocked his head to the side and stared at Yukio intently while the young Doctor finished stitching his wound. “You were with Grandfather and you really look a lot like the infamous Aunt Yuri... Oh wow are you in the wrong place.” He leaned in and whispered in Yukio’s ear, “Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. I wish I’d stayed human too.”

A moment later their next patient of the day arrived. A demon with the appearance of a young teenager suffering from a half-dozen bullet wounds. The demon’s healing was working furiously but the bullet fragments burned like phosphorous, creating new injuries even as the original insult healed.

The guards who brought the demon in strapped him to an operating table. “Give me a hand here!” Saul ordered. “We’ve got to get the fragments away from his heart.”

“What is this stuff?” Yukio exclaimed as he and Saul picked tiny burning fragments out of their patient’s chest cavity.

“Raw solar salt,” one of the guards said watching the demon scream and writhe with awe. “It never ceases to amaze me, they shrug off conventional weapons like they’re nothing, but a stuff a bullet with a little thing like that and look at the results.”

‘Lucky for Rin that the refining process makes salt safe for demons,’ Yukio couldn’t help but think. ‘Not being able to tolerate table salt would be hell for him.’

During the chaos Rene slipped out of the infirmary.

As they cleared away the salt the demon’s natural healing took over and finished the job. After twenty minutes the demon boy lay limp on the table, breath coming in pained gasps as his skin knitted itself back together. He stared at the ceiling blankly, helpless tears running down his face as he waited for the pain to abate. 

With the crisis passed Saul rounded on the guards. “One shot! That’s plenty to collect your data. Riddling the subject with bullets doesn’t teach us anything! In fact it muddies the water. This is research you morons, not target practice!”

Over the course of the day Yukio saw two more poisoning victims and removed a dart that delivered a micro transmitter which played recorded scriptures. Apparently fatal verses were only effective when recited by a living person. 

The first of the two poisonings was treated with a dose of activated charcoal and then spent several hours retching much like Rene had done. Although his physical reaction was the same, the patient was entirely different. The demon had struggled violently against the guards as they hauled him into the Infirmary and strapped him to the bed. Then Yukio and Saul forced a tube down his throat while the demon did everything he could to resist despite the cramps that had his body trying to double over even while the restraints held him in flat. Once the activated charcoal took effect they secured him in the recovery position and left him to suffer as the poison was absorbed out of his system. 

The second poisoning victim looked even younger than the first, maybe thirteen and lanky, as if he’d just had a massive growth spurt. He hung listlessly between the guards as they brought him in and while he didn’t fight treatment Yukio had to massage his throat to get him to swallow. As he did so, Yukio noticed a bloody sweat forming on the patient’s forehead. Within a few minutes the skinny demon was bleeding out of every orifice. Saul glanced over and said, “Well, that one’s a success for the Toxin Division. Take notes on the progression then let me know when we’re ready for the autopsy.”

“Right,” Yukio mumbled numbly. He picked up a clipboard and sat down beside the boy and spent the next twenty minutes petting his hair and talking softly to him while he waited for the boy to die. Once he’d drawn his last breath Yukio called Saul back and they cut open his chest to reveal a mass of half-liquified organs. “A major success for Toxins.”

Yukio left the Infirmary in a daze. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ran through his head over and over again. 

The guard at the exit stopped him as he was about to head back to his dorm and try to forget the face of their successful subject. “Lord Egin requested your presence for dinner at his residence,” the guard informed Yukio. “A car is waiting outside for you.”

Yukio got into the car thinking that his grandfather was the last person in the world that he wanted to see right now. The driver delivered him to a building in Leblon and turned him over to the concierge who put Yukio on an elevator to an upper-level condominium. A maid met him at the elevator and escorted him to a small but formal dining room where Egin was waiting.

“How was your first day?” Egin asked.

“Why don’t we perform our tests on Coal Tars or other, less human-looking, demons?” Yukio asked bluntly, unable to escape the eyes of the boy who’d died.

“Most high level demons are humaniod,” Egin pointed out. “A Hell-King would laugh at weapons that would vaporize Coal Tars.”

“I know,” Yukio sighed. “But… I lost a patient today, a successful test according to my supervisor. He was younger than I am.”

“Age is irrelevant, demons are the enemies of mankind,” Egin stated.

“If my project succeeds they won’t be demons anymore, they’ll be sundered from Gehenna, and what remains in Assiah will be as human as any of us,” Yukio said forcefully. “Saul told me you approved of my project. You must believe they can be saved too.”

“I admire your youthful idealism and determination,” Egin said. 

“In other words you think I’ll fail,” Yukio said.

“No, I support your efforts. It would be a miraculous thing should you succeed,” Egin appeased Yukio. “To save your twin and…” 

“Rene,” Yukio filled in. “How can you keep Rene in that place?”

“If I did not everything I have worked so long for would fall,” Egin stated. “Unlike the Grigori we do not collude with demons. Fools, believing that demons can be our trump card against Satan. They have convinced themselves that they’ve tamed the likes of Mephisto Pheles,” Egin snorted in disgust. “It’s him that is using them, for hundreds of years the True Cross Order has been little better than a puppet to that demon.”

Yukio’s teeth gritted at the mention of Mephisto, but he wasn’t distracted. “What does that have to do with Rene?”

“The Facility does not collude with demons,” Egin reiterated. He sighed sadly, “There can be no exceptions. As the director of the Facility, I am the last person who can break our laws. My grandson Rene died, 106 is a demon and the Facility offers no succor to demons, period. But if Rene could be resurrected… Where do you plan to start your research?”

“My brother’s demon blood was sealed for fifteen years,” Yukio said, as he spoke his agitation faded. “Rin was born a demon, but the Koma Sword’s sheath sealed his blood and allowed him to live as a human. Eventually his powers grew too strong and leaked past the seal, obviously the seal was too weak. A sword is meant to be drawn, but Rin’s connection to Gehenna should have been permanently severed not just shielded. A sword and sheath is the wrong symbology, I need something that is designed to locked a demon’s powers away for all eternity.” 

Egin nodded. “You might also study summoning circles. In truth they are partial gates to Gehenna. By studying how one opens a gate one might detect clues as to how to close a gate.”

Yukio nodded. As they ate they continued discussing Yukio’s plans to devise a method of freeing a demon from Gehenna’s influence. Once the dishes were cleared Yukio stood and bowed slightly to his grandfather, “I have class first thing in the morning,” he excused himself. 

As he turned to leave a picture caught his eye. It showed a small class of newly minted Exwires. A girl with long curly hair and features so very like his own stood in the center of the group staring challenging at the camera. A boy with Rin’s tousled mop of dark hair hovered timidly at her shoulder.

Egin noticed the direction of Yukio’s gaze. “Twins run in your grandmother’s side of the family,” he said. “That’s your mother Yuri, of course and her brother Yana.”

“Rene’s father, where is he now?” Yukio asked.

“Our family has been plagued by tragedy,” Egin sighed sadly. “I lost Yana and his wife in a car accident eight years ago.”

* * *

Yukio groaned when he saw light seeping out around the cracks in his doorjam. He was meticulous in his habits, he didn’t have a roommate and there was only one person he could think of who’d break into his room. 

He opened the door and felt no surprise at seeing Shura sprawled across his bed going through his manga collection. “Why don’t you have the latest volume of ’Fuuka’?” 

“Maybe because it’s a romance,” Yukio said. “Did you break into my room just for that? Because I’ve had a long day and I’d like to go to bed.”

“Doing what?” Shura asked. “You weren’t at the call center. That La Llorona was still causing problems, I thought you’d be interested in getting out again.”

“I won’t be on call center duty anymore,” Yukio said stiffly.

“So what are you up to these days?” Shura persisted.

Yukio snatched the manga she was reading out of her hands and gestured toward the door.

“Your grandpappy brought you under the mountain?” Shura guessed.

Yukio’s head snapped around. “How did you know he was my grandfather? I barely learned that myself.”

Shura shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out. Not if you knew Shiro. Sixteen years ago Shiro Fujimoto got ordered to execute Yuri Egin and any child resulting from her assignation with Satan. Six months after he reported that he’d carried out his orders Shiro adopted a pair of orphaned twins. Rumor had it that he was doing it as some sort of penance for the babies he’d killed, but most people are idiots.”

Yukio nodded in agreement.

“You know,” Shura said. “There were a lot of people who thought Shiro shouldn’t have been Paladin.”

Yukio started to protested.

Shura grinned. “Oh nobody questioned that he was the strongest, but the Paladin’s supposed to be the Grigori’s sword and Shiro had an interesting way of following orders. Most blamed his friendship with our favorite demon headmaster, but you should read some of the transcripts from his disciplinary hearings before the two of them became drinking buddies.

Yukio couldn’t help the look of curiosity that crossed his face.

Shura laughed. “About three months after passing the Exorcist Exam Shiro claimed he ‘forgot’ his orders. The presiding judge asked how he could expect the court to believe that an Aria with scores like Shiro’s forgot something so simple. Shiro started reciting scripture that flatly contradicted the orders he’d been given. Then he says ‘I figured I was doing the guy who gave me those orders a favor by forgetting ‘em’.” Shura shook her head. “Mephisto didn’t teach Shiro disobedience, he taught him politics. The Shiro Fujimoto I knew and read about wouldn’t have resigned after carrying out an order he found repulsive. Which makes you and your brother Yuri Egin’s kids. And just because Ernst Egin would rather everyone forget that he ever had a daughter doesn’t mean that they have.” 

“You’re wrong,” Yukio protested. “He wanted to meet me because he misses my mother. I’m the only family he has left.” Even as he said it Yukio remembered Rene who was ‘dead’ to their grandfather because this demon-blood had awakened.

“What about your brother?” Shura asked sharply.

“Grandfather can’t recognize him,” Yukio said quickly. “Because of his position he can’t recognize someone like Rin.” 

Shura snorted. “I’m sure. The man’s hatred of anything to do with demons is pathological. Back when he had influence Ernst Egin’s pet-cause was getting the Tamer Meister disavowed and having all familiars put down. He stopped short of calling all Tamers subversives, but not by much.”

“He’s changed,” Yukio protested.

“Maybe he is just a lonely old man wanting to reach out to his last human relative,” Shura said skeptically. “But you watch yourself around him Yukio. Sixteen years ago he held the position of Melchior and he’s the one who signed the order for your mother’s execution.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cubeb or tailed pepper is a berry that was believed to repel demon in both Europe and China. It’s used as a seasoning in Indonesia.


	4. Subjects

_“Maybe he is just a lonely old man now. But sixteen years ago he held the position of Melchior and he signed the order for your mother’s execution.”_

_There had to be some explanation, some reason. Shura was wrong. Shura was lying. Something, but it was hard to think in the middle of a massive hobgoblin attack. No it wasn’t the hobgoblins, they were easy enough to deal with, it was Rin. Pressing, demanding answers, explanations, like the spoiled, sheltered brat he’d always been._

_‘What right does Rin have to demand anything? It’s his fault I had to grow-up so fast. It’s his fault Father Fujimoto died. He’s demon!’_

_And somehow Yukio’s gun was leveled at his brother’s head, his finger on the trigger. The first thing Father Fujimoto had told him when Yukio started training as a Dragoon was never, never under any circumstances, ever point a gun at someone unless you were willing to see them dead. Not as a joke, not if you were absolutely sure it was unloaded, not if you knew you’d never pull the trigger, never point a gun at someone you weren’t willing to kill._

_“Why are you so shocked Granddad ordered Mom’s execution?” Rin asked. “He’s no different from you.”_

Yukio tumbled to the floor, he stared around him in confusion. After Shura had left, he couldn’t even think of trying to go to sleep. He’d wandered around the dorm, somehow he’d ended up in the lobby, he’d been sitting in the window seat staring out at the night. And then he’d fallen asleep and… Yukio took a deep breath. It had been a dream. 

He’d just been dreaming about that first day of class back in Tokyo, the hobgoblin attack, leveling his gun at Rin. Rin pushing him to shoot, forcing Yukio to answer Rin’s question though his actions: _“If you knew all this time, then how did you feel about me?”_ Rin would never know how close he’d come to pulling that trigger. 

Yukio remembered Rin’s accusation from his dream. Pointing a gun at Rin in the heat of the moment, it wasn’t the same as coolly signing an execution order for your own daughter. Yukio took a deep breath. ‘Or was it? I don’t really know the circumstances. Mother was carrying Satan’s children, it wasn’t as if she were innocent in all this.’

Yukio knew what the Exwires and the monks at the monastery thought of him once they’d found out about what he was doing to Rin, but really that was for Rin’s own good. Everyone knew what he’d done but they still couldn’t see that he was just trying save Rin. It wasn’t a perfect solution, Yukio knew that, but he’d been doing the best he could in an impossible situation. 

Maybe, maybe there was more that he didn’t know about the circumstances behind his Grandfather’s actions. After all, his grandfather had known for years that Father Fujimoto hadn’t actually carried out his orders and he’d never betrayed them to the Grigori.

Yukio sighed, and even if there was nothing more to it, Ernst Egin was giving him a chance to make Rin human again, either through Yukio’s research or through the grander plan to destroy all of Gehenna. Even if his grandfather were responsible for his mother’s death, how could he give up the only opportunity he had left to save his twin?

* * *

“Your subjects have been assigned,” Saul commented when Yukio arrived at the infirmary a few days later. “You might as well go down and see what you have to work with. The cages are on the fifth level.”

“All right,” Yukio said, although every time he heard someone mention ‘the cages’ a part of him cringed and wondered just how deep the mire he was wading into ran. ‘When I succeed I’ll be able to make Rin human again,’ Yukio reminded himself. ‘Two months ago the only thing I could think of to save Rin was to put him in a coma. But now I’ve got hope, real hope.’

Saul handed Yukio a short form. “The guard will need this,” he said. Yukio accepted the paper. 

On level five the guard opened a door revealing a long hall, both sides lined with bars. “Your five are in the first cell on the left,” the guard said. “We don’t have that many projects for non-fatalities. Your only real competition for subjects from this level is the first level toxin screening group.”

“I just want to see them today,” Yukio said. The guard pointed to the cell. As Yukio looked inside he felt his stomach drop. The demons caged in the barren cell were nothing but children.

A boy with purple horns poking out of his dark hair sat near the bars stacking several tin bowls like they were blocks. He couldn’t have been more than five. A pair of identical four-year-old boys with feline features and bodies covered in short tawny fur were wrestling in the center of the cell. 

The five-year-old was wearing a medical smock but the twins were stark naked. A girl with snake-like eyes and scales on her face huddled under a blanket on the lowest of the three bunks. She held a bundle of rags in her arms, rocking them like a baby-doll while she hummed under her breath. A glowing pair of red eyes glared out from the shadows on the top bunk suggested a fifth child.

Besides the bunks the only other features in the cell were a trough with a drain recessed in the floor near one corner and a water tap sticking out of wall above it.

Yukio swallowed. “They’re so young,” he said.

The girl looked up from her bundle of rags at the sound of Yukio’s voice. 

“Yeah, the researchers say data on demons less than six years old is pretty worthless,” the guard replied. “The bean counters always gripe about how long it takes before we start getting returns so projects like your get support even if they’re far-fetched.”

Yukio looked around and realized all the cells on this level held child-demons. Some as young as two none older than six. He quickly estimated that there had to be at least two hundred kids imprisoned there. “How did you capture so many demon children? What were this many demon kids doing in Assiah in the first place?” he stammered.

The guard smirked. “Classified.” 

The little girl started giggling madly, the other children drew back from her. “Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, had a wife but couldn’t keep her,” she sang in a clear piping voice. “He put her in a pumpkin shell, there he kept her very well.” She smiled at them. “Peter, Great Grandmother is looking for her daughter. The ground will tremble and the sky will burn.”

Yukio and the guard retreated back out of the hall, the little girl’s mad laughter chasing after them. 

“Most of them are feral little beasts,” the guard said his earlier arrogance no where to be seen. “But every now and then one of ‘em will just start talking. Frankly I prefer the ones that can’t figure out what the trough’s for.” 

Yukio returned the Infirmary but what he’d found in the cells lingered. In every injured subject he saw those kids he’d been given to test his theories on five or ten years down the road. Raised in a cage like livestock, dragged out and poisoned or shoved in front of a firing squad. Detached researchers with clipboard watching their suffering with clinical eyes until they finally died and were cut open for the last bit of data that could be wrung out of their broken bodies before they were thrown out with the trash. 

‘I have to succeed,’ Yukio thought. ‘And not just for Rin. If I fail those kids are all going to end up dead.’

* * *

For three consecutive night Yukio barely slept as burned through book after book on sealing demons: Making the inks, designing the seal. He studied the Koma Sword’s history and how it linked Assiah and Gehenna and how the sheath blocked that link. He studied until his eyes burned and his head swam but how to take all the information he’d absorbed and transform it into a permanent seal that would severe a demon from Gehenna eluded him. 

The fourth night he ended up sleeping at a table in the library, his cheek pillowed on an open book. The following morning was a Saturday so Yukio decided to simply pick-up his research where he’d left off the night before. But he still couldn’t think of the key he was missing and he found himself staring at the books blankly instead of reading them. Yukio went back to the computers to start a new search, to his surprise one of the abstracts he pulled up from the Facility’s database had Yana Egin’s name on it. And then somehow Yukio was searching the True Cross’ records for Yuri and Yana Egin.

Yukio learned that his mother had shown early potential as a Tamer but had graduated from the True Cross Academy of Cologne with a Knight Meister. She’d remained attached to the school for another two years until her brother completed his Doctor Meister. Yana had married six months before he passed the Exorcist Exam. Once both Yuri and Yana had their certifications they’d been assigned to their father’s lab, then located outside of Prague in the small town of Sedlec. 

Within a month Yuri requested reassignment. She ended up at the True Cross’ Tokyo Branch where she’d qualified as a Tamer alongside Fujimoto Shiro. Yuri remained in Japan for several years without anything worth official note occurring. Until Yuri and a half dozen Exorcists were sent on a disastrous mission in the Aokigahara forest. The burnt out corpses of Yuri’s teammates were found at the edge of the Sea of Trees, neatly laid out for burial but there had been no sign of Yuri. That was the last time her name appeared in the Vatican’s official records.

Meanwhile Yana had continued on gradually climbing the ranks in his father’s lab. A year after Yuri left Yana and his wife adopted a baby boy. Yukio snorted at that. Rene might not have been the child of Yana’ s wife but he certainly was Yana’s biological son. When Ernst Egin had been promoted to a position in Rome over-seeing all the True Cross’ R&D divisions Yana became the director of the Sedlec lab.

Ernst Egin was appointed to the position of Melchior. Shiro Fujimoto became the True Cross’ Paladin. Rene Egin turned four. And then the Blue Night happened. While hundreds of the surviving Exorcists were abruptly promoted to fill holes left by all the deaths that night the Egins were demoted. Yana took a position at the, then insignificant, research lab in Rio. Ernst vanished for a year and a half before resurfacing in Rio and taking a minor position in the branch’s administration.

The research lab in Rio quickly gained prominence after the Egins’ arrival. Almost all the True Cross’ weapons advances were coming out of Rio within two years. After five years Yana was promoted to director of the burgeoning facility and his father was one of primary researchers. Then, when Rene was twelve, he and his parents were in a car wreck. Yana and his wife died on impact. According the to the obituaries in the local newspapers Rene died in the hospital a few days after his parents. And Ernst Egin took over as director of the Rio Facility.

Yukio shivered. His mother had been born with the aptitude to be a Tamer but she’d apparently respected her father’s opinion of Tamers… until she’d gone to work for him. Once she’d gotten a good look at what went on in her father’s labs Yuri had turned her back on her family. Yukio knew he was making wildly unsupported assumptions but remembering that picture of his mother and her twin he couldn’t help but think that while he’d inherited his looks from their mother, Rin seemed to have gotten his personality from her. And it seemed that Yana, who looked so much like both Rin and Rene, was actually more like Yukio in temperament.

Yukio knew that, when confronted with injustice, Rin’s reaction was loud, immediate and straightforward. He could picture Rin seeing the cruelty of the Facility labs and storming off in a rage, switching his sympathies to the demons he’d once trained to fight. Yukio shook his head, well, he could have pictured it in a world where Satan hadn’t earned himself Rin’s undying animosity by killing the man who’d raised them as his own. Rin preferred things to be simple, but he wasn’t so naive as to think that the world was black and white.

Yukio knew that he himself was more inclined to respect authority than Rin was. Rin went with his gut regardless of circumstances. Yukio was more analytical and less trusting of his instincts. Even if something struck him as wrong he tended to toe the line while quietly collecting more data, because he was willing to admit that his seniors might know better than he. But that wasn’t to say Yukio wouldn’t buck authority once he’d thoroughly convinced himself that it was wrong. He was just more calculating about how he went about it than Rin was capable of.

Yuri had disappeared into a notoriously demon infested woods only to reappear, although the Vatican’s official records made no mention of it, a few years later pregnant with the sons of Gehenna’s demon king. Yana remained a member of the True Cross Order in good standing, he even weathered the storm of his sister’s indiscretions relatively intact. And the whole time he’d been raising a half-demon child under the Order’s nose.

Until it all came crashing down. Yukio imagined the car wreck, twelve-year-old Rene badly injured and trapped with his parents’ bodies. The trauma causing his latent demon-blood to awaken. Their demon-hating Grandfather seeing Rene in the hospital with a demon’s tail and pointed ears. And Rene Egin quietly died to be reborn as subject 106.

‘I never would have done that to Rin,’ Yukio told himself. ‘I was furious that Rin’s rebellious stupidity cost Father his life. I know I hurt Rin but it was to only to protect him from Mephisto’s machinations. Ultimately everything I did was to keep Rin safe. And I will succeed. I’ll save Rin and Rene and those poor kids. I don’t care who stands in my way, Mephisto Pheles, or my own Grandfather, I will save Rin.’

After that Yukio returned to his project with a renewed determination and the sort of focus that had enable him to become the youngest Exorcist on record.

A week later Shura poked her head into the True Cross Library then she rolled her eyes and strolled inside. She slipped up behind the table where Yukio had his nose buried in a thick, dusty book, a dozen more, each one making the dictionary look small by comparison were stacked around him. Shura smirked as she tip-toed up behind Yukio. She lean close to his ear then shouted, “Yo! Wimpy four-eyes!”

Yukio jerked away from her, slammed his knee into the table then lurched backwards, his chair tilted precariously. Shura caught the chair before Yukio’s head could hit. Still holding the chair a few inches from the floor, Shura leaned over Yukio and grinned. “Did I scare you?” she purred, fully aware that Yukio could hardly avoid staring at her cleavage from that angle.

Yukio coolly straightened his glasses, ignoring both his unusual position and the view. He sighed, “I’d hoped you might have learned manners now that you’re not a teenager anymore.” Shura dropped the chair. Yukio rolled to his knees a moment before it hit the ground.

“Seals?” Shura asked picking up the book Yukio had dropped. 

He snatched it away from her, “And what apocalypse brings you to the library?” he asked as he smoothed a crumpled page and marked his place.

“Our La Llorona? It’s not just one,” Shura said, turning business-like. “There’s been a dozen sightings and I’ve confirmed at least three different spectre.”

“That’s odd,” Yukio frowned thoughtfully as he laid his book aside. “La Llorona may travel hundreds of miles along the banks of a river, but they remain tied to the site of their crime.”

“Yep,” Shura agreed. “So what’s drawing them all here? It’s not like we can exorcise them when they’re condemned to wander the earth until they find the souls of their murdered children.”

“Hhmmm, we know they are truly bound to the sites of their crimes, not like a Haugbui. La Llorona stay out of hope of finding their children,” Yukio said slowly. “There are records of ones who turn vengeful and seek out faithless men; like the lover who abandoned them; to lure to their doom. Those La Llorona are seen further from waterways... but even they don’t completely abandon their place of origin.”

“Maybe something’s convincing them that their children are here,” Shura speculated. 

“It’s possible,” Yukio allowed. “Off hand I can’t think of anything that would spontaneously convince multiple La Llorona that their children could be here. Do you know how far they’re coming from?”

“Talked to one from the Rio Grande,” Shura said.

“Whatever it is it is strong enough to affect spirits as far away as the Mexican/US border?” Yukio asked in shock. 

“If you’re not too busy with your shiny new job, you could help me look,” Shura offered.

“That’s not how you ask for a favor,” Yukio said as he cleaned his glasses.

“Think of the children they might steal,” Shura pouted at him.

Yukio sighed and headed toward the bank of computers housing the card catalogue. Shura trailed after him. “Maybe something going on in your grandpappy’s lab,” she suggested.

Yukio froze for a moment, “Why would you think that?” he said cautiously. As soon as he’d agreed to join his grandfather’s lab Yukio had been given to understand that the activities in the lab were to be kept secret, even from the rest of the Order.

“Secret demon laboratory, weird-acting demons in the area, why wouldn’t I?” Shura said. “What do you do there anyway?”

“Nothing interesting, I work in the infirmary,” Yukio replied evasively. Sometime he wondered what would have happened if he’d refused his grandfather’s invitation.

“How much call does a lab have for an infirmary?” Shura pried.

“Well, I’m also working on a project of my own,” Yukio said.

“Sealing demons?” Shura gestured back toward the pile of books Yukio had been reading.

“If there’s a way, somehow, to make Rin human again…” Yukio trailed off. For several minutes he and Shura searched the database in silence, taking notes about texts that might have the answers they sought.

“You know, you never told me why people blamed you when your brother attempted suicide,” Shura hinted. 

The pencil in Yukio’s hand snapped. 

“It was a suicide attempt, not some sort of crazy attempt to make himself human for you?” Shura asked on a hunch.

“His familiar went feral. I shot it. Rin tried to drown himself in holy water.” Yukio answered shortly, his tone left no question that the subject was closed. 

“Are y-” Shura began. 

Yukio stormed off before she could complete her question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forget the misleading illustration in modern ‘Mother Goose’ books, Peter’s wife did NOT happily set up house in the pumpkin shell after he shoved her in there.
> 
> Instead of La Llorona being a single individual I’m using the legend as the fate of any woman who murders her children.


	5. Peanut Butter Past

As the elevator rose toward his grandfather’s home Yukio reminded himself that whatever doubts he might have about the man, Ernst Egin was giving him a chance to make Rin human again. Until Rin was human it didn’t matter Egin had done in the past or what secrets the Facility might hide.

The elevator doors slid open and Yukio was surprised to hear Shura’s voice. “The Grigori authorized me to investigate your facility.”

“Over a few lost La Llorona?” Egin replied dismissively. “Young lady, I know a pretext when I hear one. I’ve provided you with the abstracts for the research currently going on in the Facility, that should be more than enough to tell you that we have nothing to do with your spectre problem. Do not try to blame me when the Grigori’s methods prove insufficient.”

“Yeah, you gave me some cooked books,” Shura replied dismissively. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you never go out after dark. You know why the La Llorona are here.”

“When I was a member of the Grigori, the Order was making significant gains against the forces of darkness, my labs create the most efficient means of killing demons ever seen on this planet,” Egin declared. “I have many enemies in Satan’s Legion.”

“And don’t forget you had his paramour killed… even though she was your daughter.” Shura said.

“You have overstayed your welcome,” Egin said coldly.

“I’ll be sure to report fully on your co-operative attitude,” Shura replied, Yukio caught sight of her anything-but-innocent smile as she turned to leave. As she caught sight of him, Shura’s expression changed to one of friendly surprise. “Yukio? You know the Facility Director,” she exclaimed as she threw an arm around Yukio’s shoulders and leaned up against him. “That is so weird.” She turned to Egin. “Me and Yukio here studied together for our Doctor Meister.” She gave Yukio one last squeeze then let herself out.

“That woman is a menace,” Egin declared once the elevator doors had closed.

“Shura can be annoying,” Yukio admitted. “But she keeps you sharp. I wouldn’t be half the Dragoon that I am if not for trying to compete with her skills as a knight.”

“She’s poking into things that are none of her business,” Egin said frowning. “Be cautious about what you tell her.”

“I’m always careful,” Yukio stated.

“She has a kunoichi’s linage, watch what you say to her in bed as well.” 

Yukio flushed bright red. “I’m not sleeping with Shura!” he sputtered. “She does that stuff just to try to embarrass me! It would be totally inappropriate! I was seven when we met!”

“You’re not seven anymore and she is unscrupulous,” Egin warned.

Yukio drew himself up, despite the lingering flush on his cheeks his face became an expressionless mask. “I don’t believe we’ve known each other long enough to be having this conversation,” he stated.

“Of course,” Egin said bowing his head. “We should have dinner. I should like to come to know you well enough that you would accept advice from me on delicate matters someday.”

* * *

Yukio was yawning over his lab books the day after another long night in the library when two Exorcists hauled Rene in and dumped him on one of the beds.

Rene was wheezing and clawing at his throat. The one-eyed demon’s face was swollen and red. He kept trying to double over as he writhed in pain. For a moment Yukio found himself staring into a terrified grey eye. ‘Grey not blue,’ Yukio told himself ‘And the room doesn’t stink of burnt flesh.’ Still Yukio felt panic bubbling up inside him, he could see Rin laying on the tiles in the bathroom struggling to breathe.

Saul shoved Yukio aside and forced a curved metal spatula into Rene’s throat, opening it up so that he could intubate him then gave him an injection. After a few tense moments Rene’s body relaxed as the flow of oxygen was restored. Saul signed with relief and started attaching monitors to Rene.

Yukio forced his fists to open, he stared at the bloody crescents on his hands in confusion then went to assist Saul in getting Rene settled.

Ten minutes later Egin stormed into the infirmary. He stared at Rene for a moment then turned on Saul. “Who is the idiot who gave him peanut butter!” he demanded. “His file clearly states he’s allergic! Why do we even have peanuts here!”

Yukio stared at his grandfather in disbelief. ‘Peanut butter? Rene is dosed with anti-demon pharmaceuticals on a daily basis and he almost died because of peanut butter?’

“His human medical records listed his allergy,” Saul said reasonably. “No one bothered to transfer the information after his demon blood awoke.”

Egin glared at the man speechlessly for a moment then stormed back out of the infirmary.

“What was that?” Yukio asked in confusion.

Saul shrugged, “Lord Egin believed 106 was human for twelve years, after he learned the truth he brought him here, told us he was to be treated like any other demon. He even ran the first experiment on him himself. Still, given what you just saw, are you surprised that no one here wants to be the one to kill him?”

* * *

Before he left Yukio copied Rene’s file onto his thumb drive, if Saul noticed he didn’t say anything. That night Yukio waited until the computer lab was all but deserted then downloaded the earliest records in the file.

The file included an embedded video file. Yukio opened the file and watched. The camera was focused on a chair with restraints but Yukio could hear a door opening and shutting. 

_“Grandpa?” a high, uncertain voice asked._

_“Get up there,” Egin commanded._

_A boy who could have been Rin except for his soft grey eyes and the fact that Rin hadn’t had a tail at twelve climbed up on the chair and sat down. Egin leaned across him to secure straps across his hips, his shoulders._

_“Grandpa, I want to go home,” Rene said in a wavering voice. “You said Daddy would be here. Where’s my daddy?”_

_“Your father and mother are dead,” Egin said as he secured another strap across Rene’s thighs, then his arms. “If you were a natural creature you would have died too, but because of the evil in you, you lived.”_

_“Grandpa?” Tears welled up in Rene’s eyes. “What did I do? Where are Mommy and Daddy?”_

_“They died and you’ll never see them again because you’re a demon. You are the enemy of all mankind,” Egin declared. He secured Rene’s head in a brace, tightening the strap across the boy’s forehead and chin until his head was completely immobilized._

_“W-what are you doing, Grandpa?” Rene pled. “What did I do?”_

_“You are a demon, a monster. You are repulsive in God’s sight. Your existence shall not be tolerated. We Exorcists exist solely to rid the world of your kind. There can be no mercy for your kind. You are the source of all that is evil in our world and you must be eradicated.” Egin proclaimed. He attached a clamp to Rene’s face that forced his left eye open. “The only reason I don’t destroy you here and now and rid the world of such a blight is because you can be used so that we might better learn to destroy your kind.”_

_“Grandpa?”_

_“Demons are the enemy of all that is good. As Exorcists we have a sacred duty to protect Assiah from demonic influence through any means necessary.” Egin moved a buret into place over Rene’s eye and started the automated drip._

_Methodically holy water was dripped into Rene’s open eye. The twelve year old screamed and screamed._

After several minutes Yukio hit the fast forward button. The video went on and on, for days. Rene screamed until something burst in his throat, somehow it was even worse as the torture continued and Rene wasn’t even capable of giving voice to his suffering. The holy water beaded up in Rene’s eye until it ran down his cheek like tears. 

Even though Yukio fast-forwarded through large segments of the video file it still took him most of the night to finish watching it. The torture went on and on without reprieve. When Egin finally stopped the holy water drip Rene’s eye had become the gaping empty socket that had shocked Yukio when he’d first seen his cousin.

_When Egin released Rene’s restraints the twelve-year-old asked in a hoarse whisper, “Am I done being punished?”_

_“What?” Egin asked._

_“For not dying with Mommy and Daddy,” Rene clarified._

_For a moment Egin looked shocked then his expression hardened. “No, your punishment has only begun.”_

Yukio shoved himself away from the computer screen. For a moment he heard Rin protesting that he hadn’t killed Shiro.

‘It wasn’t like that,’ Yukio protested. ‘I didn’t have a choice. It was the only way I could think to protect Rin. He’s so stubborn and reckless. I didn’t do it to hurt him.’

But the video stuck with Yukio all through the day. Rene’s eyes had been so clearly shown. The left being physically burned away with agonizing slowness, while hope and life died out of the right eye, leaving it physically intact but equally empty.

* * *

When Yukio arrived at the Facility he found Rene all but recovered from his near fatal allergic reaction. He was sitting up in bed chattering cheerfully when Yukio walked into the infirmary. “Anaphylactic shock due to good old PB&J!” Rene said gleefully. “That would have been the perfect way to go out. I don’t think I’m ever going to forgive you for bringing me back Saul.”

Rene turned to Yukio. “Did Grandfather really come down to check on me?”

“He came,” Yukio said quietly.

“Well, I shouldn’t make too much of it,” Rene told himself. He shrugged and turned back to Yukio “Probably just reflex. Grandfather was babysitting the first time I had a really bad allergic reaction. We knew I was allergic but before that it had been just hives and getting itchy. The restaurant we were at got my order mixed up, gave me a peanut sauce. I almost died.”

“After that Grandfather was the one who was always obsessing about my epipen. He went on the warpath and got the school to ban peanuts from the campus because the school should be a safe place for me.” Absently Rene touched his scarred cheek. “How times change… He really came?”

The wistful hope in Rene’s voice eradicated the any equilibrium that Yukio had left after seeing what their grandfather had done to Rene. The intense un-ease he was feeling didn’t abate as he prepared for bed. 

_Rin burned with Satan’s blue flames. The flames coalesced into horns on his head. They highlighted his pointed ears, his fangs and danced around his tail like fairy-lights. “I’m still your brother. You still love me don’t you?” Rin asked plaintively._

_Yukio was frozen, he couldn’t answer._

_Then the flames began to consume Rin. Yukio wanted, desperately to go to him, to help but his body wouldn’t move. Rin fell to the ground, writhing in pain, screaming. His brother was burning alive right in front of him and Yukio could only stand there and watch._

_After what seemed like an eternity the flames burned themselves out. They left behind a charred, twisted corpse. Yukio felt tears running down his cheek but he still couldn’t move._

_Rin’s electric blue eyes popped open. His gaze fixed on Yukio as he started dragging his charred body across the ground toward him. Rin pulled himself up on Yukio’s body until he could drape his scorched arms over Yukio’s shoulders in a parody of a hug. Yukio felt like he should collapse under the weight of Rin’s body and the stench of burnt flesh was suffocating. Rin’s cheek was rough and felt like charcoal as he nuzzled Yukio’s throat affectionately._

_“I’d let you do anything to me if you’d just promise to love me again.”_

Yukio woke up gasping for air, his heart pounding madly against his ribs. 

Even though dawn was still hours away Yukio knew he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that night so he got dressed and headed for the library. 

The widely spaced street lamps created path of bread crumbs, isolated pools of light leading across the campus. Knowing better than most what lurked in the darkness, Yukio’s hand strayed toward the grip of his pistol. 

A long wailing cry echoed between the buildings and Yukio saw a woman in a long white dress approaching him. He let his hand fall away from his gun and straightened, guns were no good against spirits. “La Llorona, what is your business here?” he demanded sternly. 

The spirit turned and stared at him for a long moment. “You’ve seen them, the stolen children. I must find them. Where are the stolen children?” 

“You murdered your children,” Yukio told her coldly. 

“The stolen children, I must find the stolen children. She will grant me clemency if I find the stolen children,” La Llorona said. She started toward Yukio threateningly. “You’ve seen them, I can sense them on you. Take me to the stolen children. I must find them.” 

“Your children are dead. You murdered them,” Yukio repeated in a tone the wouldn’t be questioned. “They weren’t stolen. You took them to the river and drowned them.” 

“I’ll be forgiven if I find the stolen children,” La Llorona insisted. “There are so many of them, so many stolen children, so many murdered children. I hear them crying, so many children crying out. Stolen, murdered, unloved. So many, all here. I must find them. You saw them. Take me to the children.” 

Yukio stumbled back suddenly realizing that she wasn’t looking for her own murdered children but the demon-children used as test subjects by the Facility. At his faltering La Llorona grew more confident. She reached for him threateningly. “You will take me to the children.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yukio lied. 

His feet kicked as the phantom woman lifted him from ground, her icy fingers tight around his throat. “The stolen children. You’ve seen them.” 

“They aren’t your children, La Llorona,” Yukio wheezed. He grabbed her wrist with both his hands. 

“Take me to the stolen children,” La Llorona demanded. “She’ll grant me clemency.” 

“Does it matter?” Yukio choked out, regaining some of his poise, even hanging in the air. “‘She’ may forgive you, but will you ever forgive yourself for murdering your children?” 

La Llorona turned her head away, Yukio saw tears glittering on her cheeks. A moment later he tumbled to the ground as the spectre vanished. He took a shaky breath and rubbed his throat, her hands had left frostbite where she’d touched him. Slowly he got off the ground and hurried onward. 


	6. Heartache

A few weeks after the incident with the La Llorona Yukio was ready to test his theories about severing a demon from Gehenna. He told the guard to bring one of his subjects up to the Infirmary then watched in dismay as a kicking, fighting screaming child was hauled into the room and forced into the restraints. “Little beast wouldn’t let go of a stupid bundle of rags,” the guard said as he finished securing the girl with the scales. 

“That was her doll,” Yukio snapped.

The guard gave Yukio a disgusted look. “It’s a demon, not a kid,” he said over the girl’s furious howls. “And it’s your problem now.”

“Fine,” Yukio said flatly, “Watch how you solve a problem.” He stalked out the door, down to the cages and angrily demanded to be let in. He found the bundle of rags torn and scattered across the cell from having been ripped out of the little girl’s hands. He quickly collect up the remnants. Back in the infirmary Yukio used some twine to reshape them into a vaguely human semblance and handed the remade bundle to shrieking child. The restraints kept her from hugging the doll to her but she clutched it tightly and quieted. Yukio turned to the guard, “Next time, just do your job, don’t make a point of antagonizing my subjects.” 

Once the guard had left Yukio turned to the girl who was watching him suspiciously. “Now, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I’m going to draw some pictures on your stomach. You can hold your doll while I do.”

The girl narrowed her eyes at him, “Cry, Baby, Cry. Put your finger in your eye. And tell your mother it wasn’t I,” she declared.

“I won’t hurt you,” Yukio repeated. He set out a diagram of the sigil he’d developed, a pot of freshly brewed sealing ink and set to work. When he was finished the sigil glowed for a moment, the scaly texture of the girl’s skin softened but her eyes retained their slit pupils. “Well, it’s a start,” Yukio sighed.

* * *

A week later he watched as the last of the seal faded away and the girl’s original appearance completely reasserted itself. “That’s all for today,” he told the guard, a different guard tiredly. 

“Which one do you want next?” the guard asked.

“Indigo,” Yukio decided.

The guard stared at him blankly. 

“The one with the purple horns, Indigo,” Yukio explained.

“554,” Saul corrected and clarified. The guard left taking the girl with him. Saul turned to Yukio. “Don’t name them,” he said. “They aren’t pets.”

“I know what they are,” Yukio replied unphased. “And I don’t need psychological tricks to get by. I believe in what I’m doing.”

* * *

As Yukio prepared to leave that evening Rene slipped into the elevator along with him and punched the button for the level with the small balcony where Yukio had first seen him. Since then Yukio had learned that it was the only outdoor area that Rene had permission to visit.

Rene noticed a bandage on Yukio’s hand. “What happened?” he asked.

“Leo bit me while I was undoing his restraints,” Yuko replied.

“Another of your subjects?” Rene asked with a smile. “I heard you got in trouble for naming them.”

“More of a scolding,” Yukio replied as they found a spot on the balcony where they could enjoy the last light of the day.

“So, what are their names?” Rene asked eagerly. 

“The felinoid twins are Leo and Felix.” Yukio gestured with his hand. “Leo is the more aggressive twin. Indigo is the boy with purple horns. Meda is the girl with scales. And Kit is the fox-toddler. I need to look up some pediatric information,” Yukio added to himself. “I think Kit’s too skinny but I don’t really know anything about two-year-olds.”

“Kit for Kitsune and Meda for Medusa? You’re not very imaginative are you?” Rene asked teasingly.

Yukio sighed and adjusted his glasses. “Not particularly.”

“They’re nice names,” Rene apologized. “Like we’re real people.”

“Well, I thought it would be good to start getting them used to answering to names before I find a way to make them human,” Yukio justified feeling embarrassed by the gratitude in Rene’s eyes.

“The older kids are probably eating your Kit’s food before he can get to it,” Rene volunteered.

“Yeah, that was what I was thinking too,” Yukio agreed

“It’s not because they’re demons,” Rene qualified quickly. “Nobody teaches them any better.”

“I know,” Yukio said with grimace, thinking of his first few years in school. Seeing things no one else could might have been what caused him to be a favorite target with bullies, but ultimately it hadn’t been the demons who had tormented him for most of his childhood.

That night Yukio detoured to a grocery store on the back to his dorm room and bought a bottle and a can of formula. Kit was a little old for bottles but it was balanced nutrition and he wasn’t _that_ much more than a baby.

* * *

Kit giggled squirmed while Yukio painted seals on his stomach. Yukio smiled a little at the fox-eared toddler. The older four were still deeply suspicious of Yukio but a few bottles had been enough to win the littlest of Yukio’s subjects over. 

“Be still or you’ll mess up my picture,” Yukio told him and waited holding the brush at ready. He knew that using the restraints would make things go faster, but they didn’t really fit the tiny toddler and Yukio didn’t really mind the delay. Once Kit’s curiosity caused him to hold still just to see what Yukio would do, Yukio painted a few more lines. Which started Kit giggling again. Then Yukio would wait until he grew still again. Turning the whole thing into a bit of a game between them. 

Saul shook his head disapprovingly. “How I run my project is my own business,” Yukio stated. “You’re friendly with Rene.”

“I knew 106 while he was still human. And he doesn’t bite,” Saul said.

“Neither does Kit anymore,” Yukio replied. 

“You’ll end up regretting it,” Saul warned. 

Yukio finished the seal, he smiled as Kit’s eyes stopped glowing although his ears didn’t change. He picked the toddler up and handed him his bottle. Kit eagerly sucked it down while Yukio carried him back to the cages.

* * *

When Yukio arrived in the Infirmary almost three months after he’d began his tests he found Felix lying on his stomach on one of the tables. A quick glance told Yukio that his seal was still holding, there wasn’t any fur on his skin and Felix’s ears were only moderately pointed. However five sets of thick black stitches adorned the boy’s shoulder. “What happened?” Yukio asked as he rested a comforting hand on the four-year-old’s other arm.

“Apparently your seals are working,” Saul replied. “He must have seemed human to the other little beasts and they turned on 604.”

Yukio bit his lip. “Maybe I should get them a real room for when they’re sealed. Hopefully the seals will keep lasting longer and longer. It doesn’t look like his have degraded at all and it’s almost a month old. Of course there’s still obvious leakage but I’m working on that.”

Saul shrugged. “I’ll see about getting a second cell assigned to your project,” he said.

As soon as he was done checking Felix’s condition Yukio headed down to the cages to check the rest of his subjects. His project had advanced far enough that it was normal for all five of his subject to have some level of seal on them now. If one of them had reverted and attacked the others Yukio couldn’t think of any reason why they’d only go after Felix.

The moment the guard let him into the hall with the cells Yukio heard inconsolable sobbing. Rene was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the cage where Yukio’s subjects were kept. Leo was curled up in the older demon’s lap, face buried against Rene’s shoulder, the little boy’s whole frame was shaking with sobs.

Rene glanced up as Yukio came in and gave him a sad look. 

As soon as Yukio walked into the cell Indigo and Meda immediately retreated to furthest corner, but Kit latched on Yukio’s leg and grinned toothily up at him. Absently Yukio patted Kit’s head. 

“Leo’s seal broke while he and Felix were rough-housing, Felix’s didn’t,” Rene explained. “He’s been a little bit better since I cleaned the blood off him but, well, he’s gonna cry himself sick at this rate. You think maybe you could find a reason to get him up to the Infirmary? I think it’d help a lot if he could see that his twin’s going to be okay.” 

For a moment Yukio wanted to refuse. He remembered Rin crying like that after he’d accidentally broken several of Father Shiro’s ribs when he’d been six, but obviously Rin hadn’t felt bad enough because if he had he would have done what he was told when his powers started overwhelming their seal and Shiro wouldn’t have died. 

Then Yukio sighed, punishing Leo for things Rin had done was pointless. Normally the four-year-old twins were about equal and wrestling with each other was how they entertained themselves in the barren cell. It was Yukio’s fault more than Leo’s that the seal hadn’t held when the little boy became too excited. 

“Well, I obviously need to apply a new seal don’t I?” Yukio said as he shooed Kit away. “It’ll be your turn next,” He told the toddler. 

Rene smiled in relief. “See, I told you he’d let you see your twin,” he told Leo, using the fluffy end of his tail to blot Leo’s tears. 

“For some reason Leo and Meda always burn through their seals faster than the other three,” Yukio commented. Rene went to stand, picking Leo up as he did only his legs went out from under him. Yukio grabbed Rene and guided him back to the floor. “You okay?”

“Been sitting here too long I guess,” Rene said. “My legs are asleep.”

Yukio reached out to take Leo and the little boy cringed away, baring his fangs. “Be nice,” Rene scolded. “He’s taking you to your twin.” Leo squirmed around so he could stare into Rene’s eyes for several moments then he relaxed and let Yukio pick him up. 

Rene spent a minute rubbing feeling back into his legs before he tried standing again. He swayed dangerously. Yukio transferred Leo to his right arm and offered Rene a steadying hand. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked. 

“I may not have thrown up breakfast,” Rene admitted with a small shrug. “The Infirmary was a bit chaotic between this little scuffle and a new munitions test. I slipped out to check on the kiddies before anyone remembered my ipecac.”

Yukio scowled. “That could kill you,” he said.

Rene shrugged as he let Yukio drag him off in the direction of the Infirmary. “Well, dying of plain old demon-poison would be sort of boring given how much I’ve taken over the years. And I’m less tired of this place since you started hanging around, but I was curious if I’m building up an immunity, like in ‘Princess Bride’. Man I haven’t seen any movies in so long.”

“Don’t try to evade treatment and I’ll sneak some in,” Yukio bargained. “I’ll bet there are some empty offices in the middle of the night, we could borrow a computer.”

“Like a sleep-over,” Rene replied grinning. “We should swipe a laptop and show the kiddies, it’d blow their minds.” As they reached the infirmary door he grinned and made a silencing gesture.

Saul sighed at the sight of the three of them. 

“He ditched treatment this morning,” Yukio said letting Rene stumble toward the nearest bed. Then he put Leo on the bed next to Felix.

Saul’s expression became serious. “Breakfast at eight?” he asked Rene.

“As always,” Rene replied.

The doctor pulled up Rene’s records and read through the latest round of experiments. “It’s well absorbed into your system by now. There’s nothing we can do but ride it out.” He shook his head. “You’re not dead already and that’s always a good sign.”

“Grandfather would disagree,” Rene argued. “I should have died in the wreck, remember?”

Yukio turned his back on Leo to go get his sealing supplies. In a flash the little boy hopped off the table and ran around to where he could see his twin’s face. Tentatively he reached up and patted Felix’s hair. Felix smiled tiredly at Leo, no hard feelings.

* * *

Rene spent the next week in the Infirmary recovering from the poisons he’d absorbed. By the second day he’d lost sensation in his extremities and Saul was worried about his breathing. He rallied three days later and it seemed like he’d make a full recovery.

Yukio volunteered to watch Rene overnight on the sixth night of his stay in the Infirmary and snuck in the promised movies. Getting down to the fifth level to show the kids turned out to be impossible to pull off but they piled spare blankets on the floor of Yukio’s office and moved his computer so they could use it as a TV screen. 

When Rene saw the selection of titles he tackled Yukio, hugging him enthusiastically. “I didn’t think I was ever going to find out how this ended!” he exclaimed pulling out DVD’s of the last four Harry Potter movies. “Can you get me the last book? Please, please pretty please?”

Yukio laughed. “Are you really twenty?” he asked.

Rene thought for a moment, “Am I?” he asked. “I mean the days all sort of blur in here. Even if I were the type to make scratch marks on the wall of my cell… well honestly I spend enough days delirious that the count would be all off. Saul made me start shaving… quite a while back. I guess I could be twenty.”

“It’s 2014,” Yukio said softly.

Rene thought for a moment. “I’m not a teenager anymore, that is a really weird thought,” he announced. Rene shook himself as if shaking off the realization. “Movies!” he exclaimed.

After the first two movies were finished they headed down to the breakroom to make more popcorn. “So um, no more skipping treatment? You promise?” Yukio asked uncertainly. “I mean, I know it’s bad, really bad here but they’re scare to kill you in case Grandfather cares and I’m making progress on my project.”

“You know, the Facility won’t let you do everyone,” Rene warned. “I mean what would this place be without test subjects?”

Yukio straightened and stared at Rene. It made sense now that Rene had said it, but somehow it had never occurred to Yukio that the Facility wouldn’t want all their test subjects suddenly turned human.

After a time he said, “Grandfather will let me make you human again. He said as much.”

Rene’s nose wrinkled up.

“You wouldn’t want that?” Yukio asked in surprise.

“I wish my demon-blood had never awakened,” Rene replied. “I wish Mommy and Daddy hadn’t died. I wish I had both my eyes. But if I turned human again and Grandfather loved me again… I think I’d have to go away. I’d never want to see him again.”

“Why?” Yukio asked.

Rene sighed, “It’s not my fault I was born this way, you know that right? I didn’t choose for my mother to be half-demon. I didn’t make the car crash. I didn’t ask to survive the wreck.”

Yukio found he couldn’t meet Rene’s eye. He heard the echo of Rin protesting the confession he’d forced on his twin in an effort to use guilt to make Rin more pliable.

Rene stood up angrily. “I didn’t do anything!” he exclaimed. “If I changed it’s because of you Exorcists. How could I not change?” He gestured to to his missing eye. “I wanted to be an astronaut not a guinea pig.”

Yukio caught Rene’s arm before he could storm off. “It’s not that,” he said quickly. Then thinking back on everything Rene had said he asked. “You’re only a quarter demon?”

“Most of the subjects are quarts,” Rene said crossly. “Definitely all of the girls that get used in the tests.”

And Yukio’s cover suddenly became his top-most concern. “But… that’s less demon blood than I have,” he whispered.

“I told you you were in the wrong place,” Rene said. The tension in his frame faded and he leaned back against Yukio. “I think Grandfather must have failed biology.”

That startled a laugh out of Yukio.

Rene grinned, he looped his tail around Yukio’s waist. “He thinks this makes all the difference. I didn’t make it out of 6th grade but I already know that’s not how it works.”

“Did your dad seal your powers?” Yukio asked. “I can’t imagine Grandfather doing it, he would have thrown you in here as soon as he saw demon features.”

Rene shrugged. “I don’t know, I always thought I was born human.”

“You couldn’t have been,” Yukio argued. “Recessive traits don’t just turn dominant. My father, Shiro, repressed Rin’s powers so he looked human, but he was born with demon traits and I was born human.”

“Maybe,” Rene said. “It’d be kind cool actually if Daddy did defy Grandfather for me. I always thought he was scared to do anything Grandfather didn’t like.”

“If I did figure out how to sever your connection to Gehenna and get rid of that,” Yukio said gently disentangling himself from Rene’s tail. “Why wouldn’t you want to see Grandfather anymore? I thought you still wanted him to care about you?”

“I know you’re a protege or something,” Rene said with a sigh. “But sometimes you can be really dense. I’ve been good. All these years, everything that’s been done to me, I never hurt anyone. If Grandfather would see that, see that my demon-blood didn’t make me evil… That would be something. But if you turn me human again and he cares again?” Rene shook his head. “I’m still me. Tail or no tail I’m still me. I’m still the same person he tried to save from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And even if you make me human again I’ll still be the same person whose eye he put out. If he can’t see that… Well, I don’t want someone who only cares about whether or not I have a tail.”

* * *

_Smiling broadly Yukio took Rin by the shoulders and turned him toward the bathroom mirror. He gently brushed Rin’s hair back behind a rounded, human ear. Rin’s eyes widened in disbelief, he leaned forward and opened his mouth wide. Then, not believing his eyes he ran his fingers over his small, completely unremarkable incisors. Rin twisted around looking for his tail._

_Then he turned and looked at Yukio with wonder in his eyes. “I’m human? How? Dad said I’d never be human again if I drew Kurikara.”_

_“Your powers came from Gehenna, the Koma Sword was used to contain them, attenuate them enough to allow you to control them. The sheath sealed them but it wasn’t strong enough. Your powers started leaking past the seal, then you broke it by drawing the sword. The sheath continued to mute your powers but they were still there. I found a way to completely break the connection between you and Gehenna. You’re truly human now.”_

_“Oh man, that’s, that’s unbelievable Yukio. Thanks.” Rin exclaimed._

_“Hey Okumura, we’re going,” Surugo called from outside of the dorm._

_“Yeah, I’m coming. Keep your pants on!” Rin shouted back. He hugged Yukio impulsively. “I didn’t even let myself hope I could ever be human again,” he said._

_“Where are you going?” Yukio asked._

_“Well, I’ve still gotta kick Satan’s ass,” Rin said looking confused that Yukio even needed to ask. “He killed Dad and wrecked Bon’s temple and well, he’s Satan ya know. Did you think I was just gonna forgive him because you made it so he’s not my father any more?”_

Yukio woke up screaming for Rin not to go. He sighed, another night where sleep wasn’t going to be much of an option. Right after that dream he wasn’t particularly eager to spend time researching sealing either. Instead he spent several hours writing another round of letters to everyone in Japan who might be persuaded to tell him about Rin. He even wrote Shiemi’s mother; Yukio was pretty sure she’d talk to him and she might have a little second-hand gossip about the Exwire class.

When he couldn’t think of anyone else to write, Yukio headed for the computer lab to try to hack the True Cross records again. Even if he couldn’t get into the student email maybe he could still get into the gradebooks, most of the instructor had been terrible about computer security. Adachi-sensei in particular, he kept a note with his password under the keyboard in the faculty room and he always used the same password, just increasing the number by one every time he had to change it. 

Yukio calculated how many times Adachi would have had to change his password since the last time Yukio had dusted around the faculty room and stubbled across Adachi’s reminder, then he typed the password in. Rin had come out of the coma and it seemed he was as sane as he’d ever been. While Rin might not have been enrolled in the True Cross Academy’s regular classes, he was still in the Cram School. Yukio found himself smiling a little to himself as he skimmed through Rin’s grades. Apparently he was doing better at in school than he’d ever done before in his life: mostly B’s with a few slips into C’s. ‘Maybe Rin dropped out of his regular classes to concentrate more on his Exorcist studies,’ Yukio thought. But Rin was doing okay, going by his class-work better than he’d ever done when Yukio had been around. 

Of course there was no one to stop Rin from doing stupid, risky things anymore either, his friends certainly wouldn’t. The Grigori would order them into hell and whole idealistic, foolish, childish lot of them would go; marching into hell believing that good intentions and friendship would bring them back out. And then they’d all die and even if Yukio could find a way to make Rin human again he still wouldn’t be able to save him. Because Rin was Rin, just like Rene was and always would be Rene. Before the Koma Sword had been drawn Rin had always been the first one to rush into trouble and even if Yukio sealed Rin’s demon-blood away forever Rin would never choose the prudent path. The world was a dangerous place and Rin would always put himself in harm’s way if it meant keeping someone safe.

Yukio headed back to his dorm just as dawn was breaking. On his way he ran into Shura. From the look of her, Yukio could guess that she was on her way home from a bar. “What’s got you up so early?” she asked.

“I could say the same,” Yukio replied avoiding the question. 

“Oh, but I’m up late,” Shura grinned. “This is a perfectly normal time to be hitting the sack, not getting up from it.” Shura braced her hands on Yukio’s shoulders and went up on her toes to squint at him. “Ya look like hell… which is getting to be your normal state.” She grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him off. “Come on, you’re gonna tell me about what’s wrong if I have to beat it out of you.”

Three hours later the two of them were dripping with sweat, standing in one of the True Cross’ practice ‘batting-cages’ “You owe me lunch,” Shura declared grinning toothily. “Make it brunch and you can take care of the debt right now.”

“That was cheating,” Yukio stated coldly.

“What, speculating on what was getting under your skin?” Shura asked. “If I can get to you, what do you think a demon could do. So why don’t you talk to me about it, what is it about your brother that’s got you worked up now?”

Yukio sat down and and started cleaning his guns. “Just a nightmare, I dreamed Rin was human again, no powers, nothing, he could have had a normal life. Instead he went off to fight Satan with his stupid friends anyway.”

“That what your brother’s really like?” Shura asked curiously. “Sounds like my kind of kid.”

Yukio leaned back against the wall, he took off his glasses and mopped the sweat off his brow. “Yeah, that’ s Rin, not a lick of sense.” To Yukio’s surprise he felt a smile tugging at his lips. “He just wants to do the right thing. Completely, unbelievably naive... And he inherits Satan’s flames somehow. He makes you love him even while he rips out your heart because any realistic person knows he’s going to come to a bad end.”


	7. Probabilities

* * *

Saul watched with a dubious expression as Yukio loaded Rene’s arms with a scale and measuring sticks, a thermometer and a pen light. 

“You said our role was to keep the subjects alive when possible,” Yukio said defensively. “Kit was underweight and he’s probably not the only one.”

“So we’re giving everyone on level five a physical,” Rene chimed in. “Don’t worry, the kiddies like me. I’ll get ‘em to behave for him.”

“If I had the guards drag them all up here I’d have to spend the whole week dealing with screaming brats and sulking guards,” Yukio added. “I’ll write you a report on what I find but don’t be surprised if I order a few crates of formula. My bunch don’t swipe bottles from Kit.”

“You’re getting too attached,” Saul said with a shake of his head. “A researcher has to remain objective.”

“Did I seem to be having problems with the autopsy yesterday? Or the amputation?” Yukio asked flatly.

“They weren’t the subjects in your study,” Saul pointed out.

“Do malnourished subjects provide representative data for the Facility’s tests?” Yukio asked rhetorically. “I’m just doing my job, I don’t know what your problem is.”

“Kids,” Saul sighed as he watched Yukio collect Rene with glance and sweep out. “Always have to learn the hard way.”

* * *

By the end of his shift Yukio had check just over a tenth of the demon children on level five. Before he and Rene left he stopped by to deliver Kit’s bottle and look at the seals on all five of his subjects.

As soon as Yukio opened the door Kit ran to him stretching up his arms. Yukio sat on the lower bunk and pulled Kit into his lap then handed the toddler his bottle. 

Felix and Leo leapt on Rene and tried to drag him into their wrestling match. Rene braced himself as Leo scrambled up to hang from his neck while Felix hugged the older demon around the knees.

Indigo wrinkled his nose at them and went to sit on the far side of the cell. Meda retreated with her rag-doll to the upper bunk.

“Have you ever noticed how odd the population distribution among the subjects is?” Yukio asked Rene. 

Rene shrugged and looked away.

“I’d think the Facility raided some sort of demon nursery school for it’s subjects if such a thing existed.” Yukio continued.

“Could we talk about something else?” Rene asked tersely.

“Come when you’re called. Do what you’re bid. Shut the door after you. Never be chid,” Meda told Rene scornfully. 

He smiled up at her. “I’ve still got one eye that I don’t really need, but I’d like to keep it all the same.”

Meda sniffed at him then leaned over the edge of the bunk bed to peer at Yukio. “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do. She fed them broth without any bread; And whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed,” she informed him. Then she glared at him imperiously, “Find our bed. On your way home turn toward the dying light, the mournful tree marks the secret path. Show the weepers the way.”

* * *

The next night after finishing his shift, Yukio was making his weekly formula stop when a feeling of foreboding struck. He turned and saw Shura peering into his shopping basket intently. As soon as she saw him looking back a massively amused grin spread across her face. Yukio considered shooting himself, or maybe Shura, in the foot to distract her. ‘It would only delay the inevitable,’ he concluded with a sigh.

“If you’d been in the country for more than nine months I’d ask if you’d gotten a girl in trouble,” Shura remarked reaching for Kit’s formula.

Yukio swung the basket out of her reach and glared. “Do you have the slightest concept of minding one’s own business?” he asked.

Shura tapped her chin thoughtfully. “‘Course you are anal to the nth degree. Planning ahead?” she asked. “Although you’d want this,” she pointed to the newborn formulation, “not the toddler stuff.”

Yukio irritably turned his back on Shura and started for the register.

Shura caught his collar and dragged back. “Naw, I can’t see it. You’re too uptight to have gotten laid.”

“Presuming I had gotten a girl pregnant, which I haven’t,” Yukio added in case the point needed clarification. “I’d hardly be relaxed about it.”

Shura laughed, “Nope, there still would have been a period of loosening up, I would have remembered. When a pink polka-dotted leprechaun does a tap-dance on your kitchen table you remember, and you being relaxed would be even more remarkable.”

“Then maybe I’m doing a favor for a friend,” Yukio sighed.

“I’m the only friend you’ve got and I know all about safe sex,” Shura said, dismissing that possibility. “That’s pretty sad now that I think about it. Wimpy Four-eyes, you are way too young to be such a stick-in-the-mud.”

“Since when are you my friend?” Yukio asked. “I’ve always thought of you as more of a thorn in my side.”

Shura took a moment to pout at him then her evil grin asserted itself again. “I know! Little Yuki-chan is finally trying his hand at courting. Trust me, flowers will work better.” She fanned a handful of condoms in his face and added. “Use these properly and you won’t need the baby formula.”

“You are the most obnoxious, crude, inappropriate person it has ever been my displeasure to meet,” Yukio interjected.

“If ya don’t know how they work I could give ya a tutorial,” Shura continued undeterred.

“And I am counting the demons!” Yukio added forcefully. He ducked out from under Shura’s arm and stomped off to the register, Shura’s laughter trailed after him.

* * *

Friday night Yukio smiled when he saw Rene sitting the ledge of the terrace where he’d first met his cousin. He quickly shed his lab jacket and went out to join the one-eyed demon for the sunset. 

“Hey, how are you doing?” Yukio asked. 

Rene leaned back until he was looking at Yukio upside down, his legs still dangling over the sheer drop to the base of Corcovado mountain two thousand feet below. “Didn’t die today,” Rene replied. “How about you?”

“Well, I didn’t die either,” Yukio replied with a small smile. He took a seat on the bench inside the wall. “I even managed to collect data on Leo without getting bitten in the process. His seals are decaying again unfortunately.” 

Rene swung his legs back over the wall and he leaned forward and smiled up at Yukio, “I’m very impressed, Leo thinks you make funny faces when he bites you.” Then Rene shifted to sit on the deck at Yukio’s feet. He looked out at the pink and purple clouds obscuring the horizon and said, “Indigo is turning six tomorrow, that’s when the Facility says we’re strong enough for fatalities to provide meaningful comparisons with wild demons. He’s slated to move to gas testing. You probably won’t see him again.”

Yukio couldn’t say anything. He bit his lip and stared out at the sunset with Rene while trying not to think about the untrusting little boy with horns who liked to use his and his cellmate’s food bowls for stacking blocks. 

Rene lost interest in the sunset, he tilted his head back to stare at Yukio instead. Impulsively he twisted around, coming up to his knees and kissed Yukio sloppily. Yukio drew back in shock at the wet feel of another mouth on his. 

Rene flinched. “Isn’t that what you do with a demon you like?” he asked sounding years younger than his actual age. His tail that had begun to uncurl from his leg drooped. “Or is that just girl demons.” 

Yukio reached out and caught Rene’s arm before he could withdraw completely. “No, yes, I mean no that’s not how cousins show they like each other, but yes I like you.” He threaded his fingers through Rene’s hair and tugged him forward until his head was tucked beneath Yukio’s chin while gently running his other hand down the prominent ridge of Rene’s spine in a comforting gesture. 

After a bit Rene relaxed into the embrace and for a moment Yukio felt like he had his brother back. Like it was Rin huddled in his arms after one of the immersion treatments. “I’d forgotten this,” Rene murmured into Yukio’s shoulder. “It’s a hug right?”

* * *

_Yukio woke up beside Rin in the tiny apartment they shared. A shaft of moonlight had snuck in past the heavy drapes that ensured nosy neighbors would never realize that Yukio didn’t live alone. It illuminated Rin’s alabaster skin and turned his hair an inky black. The blue highlights Rin used to get from being in the sun were a distant memory. It had been over a decade since Rin had been outside, or awake._

_Over the years Rin’s body had become very slim and frail in appearance, but Yukio’s conscientious efforts had kept his limbs from withering completely due to lack of use. Seeing him practically glowing in the moonlight Yukio realized Rin was beautiful. He had always been the most important person in Yukio’s life, now by necessity he was the only person in Yukio’s life. Letting anyone else get close meant risking Rin being discovered and taken away. And nothing was worth that risk._

_Almost without thinking about it Yukio leaned over and kissed Rin. His twin’s mouth was soft and pliable beneath his. Yukio rolled over so he was laying half on top of Rin and deepened the kiss, exploring Rin’s lax mouth with his tongue. He reached out to tangle his fingers with Rin’s only to brush against the IV stuck into the back of Rin’s hand. Yukio drew back, ‘What am I doing? Rin’s my twin.’ Still he couldn’t take his eyes off Rin._

_Yukio was approaching thirty and he’d never so much as gone on a date. Rin and protecting Rin had always been more important. Rin was absolutely everything to Yukio, all his life, for as long as he could remember, everything he’d done had been for Rin. He watched his fingers sneak out to trace Rin’s lips, his breath caught as Rin’s lips parted welcomingly at his touch. He pressed forward into the moist heat, his eyes closed and a soft moan escaped him, the sight of two of his fingers sliding in and out of Rin’s mouth was unbearably erotic. Yukio couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this turned on._

_He peeled back the tape securing the IV to the back of Rin’s hand and smoothly withdrew the needle. A single drop of blood beaded up at the exit site. Yukio leaned forward and soothed away the small hurt with his tongue. The taste of Rin’s blood, Rin’s skin; metallic, oddly sweet with faint tingling aftertaste from the cocktail of drugs running through his veins; made Yukio’s head spin._

_He opened the top button on Rin’s pajamas exposing the delicate hollow of his throat to the moonlight. The second button revealed the graceful arch of his clavicle, Yukio traced his fingers and then his tongue along the gentle curve of it. After the third button Yukio had to stop for several minutes to play with Rin’s nipples, licking them then blowing cold air over them to watch them tighten. Then the top of the pajamas was completely undone, Yukio pushed the dark material back to frame Rin’s slim, pale chest. Rin hadn’t gained any body hair since he’d been fifteen, if anything the loss of muscle tone made Rin look younger._

_Yukio’s hands hesitated at the waistband of Rin’s pajama bottoms. He could feel his face heating up. Rin’s catheter had to come out, there was even more chance of it causing harm than the IV. Yukio had done it hundreds of times before, he’d been taking care of his comatosed twin for twelve years after all. There’d been a time Yukio had wanted to be a doctor, tending to Rin’s bodily needs was nothing that could embarrass him. If anything Yukio was more familiar with Rin’s body than with his own. But this was entirely different, for all the times he’d bathed, massaged, handled every last inch of Rin’s body, Yukio had never before touched him with desire._

_His hands shook, his face burned, Yukio wasn’t certain he could do it without hurting Rin. He’d never hurt Rin, he had sworn to protect Rin, to do anything to keep Rin safe. But he couldn’t stop, he needed Rin, needed Rin’s skin flush against his. Rin was so helpless, he’d never been able to take care of himself. Even when Rin had wanted to protect the whole world, he’d never been able to protect himself. Rin couldn’t survive without a care-taker, Yukio had to take care of Rin. It was his only reason for existing. It had been so long since Yukio had connected with anyone. He wasn’t sure he ever had. There was only Rin, had only ever been Rin. Through sheer willpower Yukio forced his hands to steady, he bit his lip until he tasted his own blood. He delicately took Rin’s soft cock in hand, removed the catheter and set it aside, then modestly pulled Rin’s pants back into place, face still burning with embarrassment._

_Yukio scooted back up to cradle Rin’s face between his hands. He crouched over Rin, balancing on knees and elbows as he leaned down to kiss Rin’s forehead, the lids of his eyes, the tip of his nose, before allowing himself to fully explore Rin’s mouth. He licked and bit at Rin’s lips, tilted his head back to get better access before thrusting his tongue deep inside. Yukio pressed deep, open mouthed kisses on Rin, drinking the breath from Rin’s lungs until he was drunk with arousal._

_He sank down on Rin, a slight squirm and Rin’s legs parted to let him settle between them. His painfully hard cock, fitting naturally into the crease at the top of Rin’s leg. Yukio groaned as he pressed down against Rin’s warm, pliant flesh. The friction of their pajama bottoms against Yukio’s erection was almost painful, but so very, very good. He could have sworn he felt the pulse of Rin’s femoral artery speed up enticingly in response to his attentions._

_Yukio drew back for a moment. Rin’s lips were reddened and glossy from their earlier kisses. His hair which Yukio normally kept neatly combed had been disarrayed, Rin looked more alive than he had in years. Yukio groaned, and dove back in to claim Rin’s mouth again. He slid his hands beneath Rin to grasp his hips and pressed him up into Yukio’s erection. Yukio’s back arched, he whimpered as he came. Then collapsed back onto Rin, hugging his twin to him and sobbing softly._

Yukio woke up to wet clammy pajama bottoms that didn’t simply disappear into the ether to be forgotten like the dream that caused them. He didn’t remember the dream, Yukio told himself firmly. That wouldn’t have happened no matter how long caring for Rin isolated him from human contact. It was just Rene’s inappropriate kiss putting weird ideas in his head.

‘Where had Rene gotten the idea to do that?’ Yukio wondered. His cousin was technically older than him, older by years rather than the minutes that made Rin the older brother, but it was still a technicality only. That kiss, Rene might have been twenty years old, but that kiss had been like a little kid imitating something he’d seen with no comprehension of what it meant.

‘It wouldn’t have happened,’ Yukio told himself. ‘Rene just looked so much like Rin and no one had ever kissed him before.’ 

Still Yukio couldn’t get rid of the nagging voice that told him to be thankful that his plan had gotten derailed and that Mephisto had sent him away from Rin before he’d utterly destroyed both of them.


	8. Face the Music

Yukio rubbed his temples tiredly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a good night’s sleep. His dreams alternated between having sex with Rin and ones where his twin was dying as one of the Facility’s subjects. The most recent dream; as if in revenge for Yukio’s attempt to decide which of the two reoccurring dreams disturbed him more; had mixed them together into a horrific scenario he loathed his subconscious for producing. ‘Impossible, ludicrous… thank God Rin’s not a girl and that could never happen,’ Yukio thought. ‘I blame Shura for bringing up the subject in the first place.’

He shut his eyes for a moment before asking a guard to bring Meda up to the Infirmary. She’d been singing “Ladybug, ladybug” for weeks now, ever since Indigo had been taken away. Yukio was reasonably certain it was her erstwhile cellmate she was commanding him to rescue and not a warning that Rin was in trouble back in Japan but neither option was comfortable to think on.

He had four months left to find a way to sever a demon from Gehenna before Meda turned six. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to name Indigo’s replacement, a green-skinned three-year-old, yet.

Yukio let his head rest on his desk until he heard the elevator arrive. Meda walked regally into the infirmary, the guard trailing behind her. “Who killed Cock Robin? I said the sparrow, with my bow and arrow. I killed Cock Robin,” she sang. Meda turned to stare at Yukio. “Who caught his blood? I said the fish, with my little dish. I caught his blood. Who’ll be the chief mourner?... It’s time to fetch the weepers to his bed.” she said.

“Up on the table Meda,” Yukio sighed. “It looks like your seal is holding. This shouldn’t take long.”

Saul glanced up. “When you’re done with her could you take care of the autopsy?” he asked.

“Sure,” Yukio replied without enthusiasm. “Which division brought the body in?”

“Gas.”

Yukio nodded absently as he checked Meda’s seal and made several notes about the repression of her demon traits. When he was done Yukio walked into the morgue next door. “Oh hell,” he said softly when he saw Indigo laid out on the table.

* * *

It was very late when Yukio managed to finish the autopsy and his eyes were red. 

He’d barely left the cave that disguised the Facility’s lower entrance when he saw the first wisp of white following him. By the time the path reached a small grove of trees where the canopy would blot out the moon and stars he had counted a half dozen spectre. Yukio was about fifty feet from the point where the campus, and the campus’ lit pathways began when three La Llorona confronted him. Yukio stared at them and sighed. “I’ve told you before: They aren’t _your_ children, they won’t ease _your ___guilt,” he said.

“You know where the children are buried,” the central La Llorona declared. Yukio counted four more closing off the possibility of retreat. “Take us to the children.”

“No,” he said. He took several prepared seals out of his pocket and cast a barrier around himself. “Did you think I wouldn’t prepare after your first attack?” he asked as he removed a bundle of velvet from his school bag and unrolled it to reveal three purification candles and several bundles of herbs. Almost disinterestedly Yukio started setting up the exorcism kit he’d put together after the previous attack.

The central La Llorona stepped across Yukio’s barrier without hindrance. The candles dropped out his hand and rolled away. “That’s not possible,” he said taking several steps back. A second La Llorona grabbed him from behind, wrapping her icy arms around him, pinning his arms to his sides. “Take us to the children,” she whispered in his ear. “Or you’ll face your own judgement before the sun rises.”

“Gara Gara!” A voice shouted and a horde of ghostly snakes rushed through the clearing. The La Llorona holding Yukio lost substance. He broke free and quickly moved toward the source of the attack. Shura stepped out of the shadows and cast a barrier of her own around the two of them. 

Two of the La Llorona were blown back as the barrier sprung into existence. Shura lowered her sword with a sigh of relief. “Did you actually screw-up a simple barrier spell?” she asked Yukio in disbelief.

“My spell was fine,” Yukio said shortly. Then he grimaced. “Thanks for the save.”

“Oh don’t thank me yet,” Shura replied. She turned to the La Llorona, “Ladies, I’m a bit confused. Yukio here isn’t much of a kid anymore and he can’t be a faithless lover because I happen to know for a fact that he’s a virgin. So what do you lot want with him?”

“He knows where the children are buried,” the La Llorona who had grabbed Yukio said. “We must find the stolen children.”

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Yukio said.

“Really?” Shura asked skeptically. “‘Cause that’s not what you said before. They might care about who’s kids they are... but I don’t.”

“You didn’t just happen along, you’ve been following me,” Yukio realized.

“Did you sign a demon-contract?” Shura asked laying her blade along Yukio’s collar bone and studying his eyes closely. “Is that what’s holding you silent.” 

“No,” Yukio replied. “The Facility doesn’t use them.”

“That does fit with your Grandfather’s M.O.” Shura said frowning. “So… Dead kids, start talking.”

“Humans don’t actually need demons to do their killing for them,” Yukio pointed out.

“But they don’t sense when a contract’s been breached either,” Shura replied. “So show us and don’t get caught.”

Yukio thought for a moment then gave a small nod and Shura withdrew her sword. As they walked she gave him a sidelong glance. “Threat or no, this isn’t like you.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Yukio suggested.

Shura studied him for a moment, “You think if the Facility gets shut down your project to turn your brother human will get shut down too.”

Yukio stumbled.

“I don’t know you? Yeah right,” Shura snorted. “Do you actually think that brother of yours would want you wrecking yourself for him like this? Cause if he would, he ain’t worth it. And if this isn’t what he’d want, why are you doing it?”

“It doesn’t matter what Rin would want,” Yukio replied. “He’s an idiot who can’t look after himself. That’s why Father entrusted him to me.”

“If you’re gonna tell me Shiro’d approve of what you’re doing, even of what you’re doing to yourself, save your breath,” Shura said. She turned to the La Llorona, “Just so I can hold it over him, what was wrong with his barrier?”

“His guilty heart,” the leader said. A faint look of relief flitted across Shura’s face and was quickly concealed. “He can’t keep us out when his heart knows he should be with us.”

Yukio spun around, fully animated for the first time since seeing Indigo’s body, his eyes burning with hate. “I am nothing like you!” he declared, his voice dropping into a deep growl. “You murdered your children simply to pursue your selfish desires.”

The La Llorona cringed away from Yukio in terror and even Shura felt a sliver of ice run down her spine at the sight of Yukio’s eyes.

“There is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for Rin!”

Shura swallowed then gave Yukio a cool look. “And when are you planning on forgiving your brother for all those sacrifices he never asked you for?”

Yukio flinched and turned away. “We’re almost there,” he said in his normal voice. He turned off the path headed west, scanning the treetops for a particular shape. “Cupressus sempervirens,” he said, his pace picking up as he spotted a dark green spire. “Graveyard Cypress.” Just past the tree he saw a small cave in the cliff face. Yukio took out a flashlight and crawled inside. Shura murmured a quick spell and retrieved her own light then followed after Yukio. The La Llorona walked through the rock face.

After crawling for fifty feet the cave opened up on a deep chasm Shura could hear the La Llorona’s wails echoing up from the depths. She shone light down into the pit and recoiled at the massive pile of bodies that were revealed.

“Successful tests,” Yukio said tonelessly. He pointed his light across the pit to illuminate a service elevator. “Last floor, everybody off. For months I’ve been thinking that my math had to be wrong. I estimate that the Facility has three fatalities a week on average. You have to conserve test subjects you know, or there’d be more. Still that’s roughly a hundred bodies a year for the last sixteen years. I guess I wasn’t wrong after all.”

“I have no idea where they get all them,” Yukio added forcefully, even though Shura hadn’t asked. “But ultimately this is where they all end up.”

Shura played her light back and forth across the pile of carelessly discarded bodies. Arms and legs stuck out at random angles. Rib-cages gaped open, cracked for autopsy with no effort made to restore the body to a semblance of its original condition afterwards.

“Of course they’re all demons; or at least part-demons who show their heritage too strongly; and we are Exorcists. This may look a bit grotesque but really it’s just a job well done,” Yukio said blandly.

“If you honestly believed that, you wouldn’t have brought us here,” Shura said. “If you really had your heart in this you wouldn’t have given in so easily.”

“Believe what you like,” Yukio said and turned to leave.

Shura took one last shuddering glance at the pit then went after him. They walked back toward Yukio’s dorm in silence. 

As they crossed the campus Shura’s walk took on a drunken sway. She threw a careless arm around Yukio’s shoulders. “How long’s it been since you tested yourself?” Shura asked quietly as Yukio stiffened in surprise.

“A few months,” he answered not looking at her. 

“Test yourself again and keep checking, frequently,” Shura told him.

“Why?”

Shura turned her head to look back down the path toward the pit. “Because I don’t wanna find you down there.” 

Yukio flinched.

Shura leaned closer to him and whispered. “I’m guessing that today was a test and you just it failed: You haven’t completely eviscerated your heart yet.”

“But they can’t know that. Your dorm room is bugged. You have got to act like it’s just another day or they’ll know, and the act starts now. If it ever hits you, how deep you’re in this, come to my apartment. Don’t make me go looking for your corpse.”

* * *

The next day Yukio felt like a puppet as he went through his classes. His body went through the motions of his daily routine, he could watch himself answer his teacher’s questions, and move about the campus as if there was someone else driving his body and he was nothing more than a disinterested spectator in the whole thing. 

At the Facility he checked into the Infirmary then spent the first half of his shift picking bullet fragments out of an eight-year-old’s thigh then making notes on how the toxins his colleagues had coated the bullet with had affected healing. When he finished bandaging the wound he gave his patient an empty, professional smile and told the guards that they could have him.

“Yukio, if you’re finished up there?” Saul asked. 

“What is it? Another autopsy?” 

“You handled that much better than I was expecting,” Saul admitted. “So I figure it’s time. I know you’ve been curious about where we get our subjects.”

“How could I not be,” Yukio heard himself say. “You have more Fallen in this facility than I thought existed in all of Gehenna.”

“Let me show you the the secret of our success,” Saul said leading Yukio out into the corridor. “Exorcists have been trying to make better means of killing demons pretty much since time began. But one bad field test and there goes your researcher. We figured out a few things that worked and we stuck with them. Exorcist tactics stagnated well over a thousand years ago. Until this facility started a hundred and seventy-five years ago.”

“Lord Egin isn’t the founder?” Yukio responded, injecting the right amount of surprise into his voice.

“He’s only the latest director, he took over from his mentor twenty years ago,” Saul said. “This beauty is the heart of the facility. As long as we’ve got her we have controlled experimentation and scientific discovery to drag demon-slaying into the twenty-first century.” He unlocked a heavy metal door and ushered Yukio inside. The room contained a large, heavily reinforced tank. Drifting in the murky depths, held unconscious by the fluid surrounding her was a demon with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a monstrous snake. A pair of withered wings sprouted from her shoulder blades. 

“Echidna,” Yukio breathed.

Saul grinned. “Capturing her was the stroke of luck that made all this possible. Ever since we’ve had the Mother of Monsters busily supplying us with new test subjects.” He opened another door off to the side of the room and Yukio looked inside to see row after row of tubes each containing a more human-seeming demoness, many of them showing signs of pregnancy. “We would have preferred to stick with half-demon subjects,” Saul said, “But even Echidna couldn’t keep up with the demand in this place. To maintain our stock of subjects for the Facilities experiments we had to use her daughters as well.”

Yukio felt a wave of revulsion. The child he’d just treated, and hundreds of other children with no names only numbers, children whose entire lives consisted of nothing more than serving as test subjects for the Facility’s latests weapons. That could have been Rin’s childhood if not for Shiro. Could have been his childhood. “What do you do with the children who are born human?” Yukio had to ask.

Saul shrugged. “Mostly we put them up for adoption. Occasionally the sire decides to take them home for one reason or another; you know 106. But that’s a practice Lord Egin discourages. It blurs the line between demon and human.”

Saul led Yukio back to the infirmary. “So, that’s our secret. We needed test subjects, so we bred them. Like everyone else, you’ll be required to donate sperm.” 

Saul gave Yukio a leering smile. “Some of the guys like donating the old fashion way. You can take a better look at the girls later If you see any you like, just let me know.”

* * *

_“I’m an uncle?” Rin asked his voice full of delight as he stared down at the two tiny children. His bangs cast his downturned face in shadows. “Wow, Yukio I absolutely never saw that coming. They’re just like we used to be.”_

_He gave one of the tiny children a nudge toward Yukio. “They say you can take that one home, but the other one has to stay here with me.” As he spoke Rin looked up at Yukio, revealing Rene’s burnt-out eye socket. “Maybe if you pull some strings you can get him a relatively painless death. I mean, if you care enough to bother.”_

Yukio woke up to a pounding headache and a foul-tasting mouth. He reached blindly for his glasses but instead of the bedside table in his dorm room his hand encountered a bare shoulder. “What the hell!” he exclaimed.

“And good morning to you too,” Shura replied. She sat up and handed Yukio his glasses.

He realized he was only in his boxers and pulled the sheet up to his chin, inadvertently revealing more of Shura. She smirked at him and stretched languidly.

“What happened?” Yukio demanded.

“Well, you turned up here last night in a state,” Shura began as Yukio’s memories began to trickle back in. “I figured it would do you a world of good to get drunk and get laid…”

Yukio lunged for the trashcan. Shura pursed her lips in a pout as he dry heaved. “Last night I was ready to blame the alcohol but I’m starting to feel insulted,” she said.

Yukio looked up from the trashcan. “Yesterday my superior at my Grandfather’s research lab asked me if I’d like to rape an unconscious half-demon for the purpose of making subjects for my Grandfather’s weapons testing. The last thing I need right now is to get laid,” he snarled.

“I suppose I won’t take it personally then,” Shura remarked. “What else is going on under the mountain?”

“Don’t you know?” Yukio asked.

“I don’t think Egin trusts me,” Shura shrugged. “Can’t imagine why.”

The color that had begun to return to Yukio’s face drained away again. “They’re going to want semen samples even if I don’t-” he looked at Shura with panic in his eyes. “Whatever Grandfather says about me being human, half my genetics still come from Satan.”

“I thought Mephisto was bad, trying to turn Rin into a weapon against Satan, but Grandfather would love to have someone like Rin in his hands. They’d take Rin apart trying to figure out how to better hurt Satan.”

“Egin’d do that to his own grandchild?” Shura encouraged.

Yukio laughed bitterly. “He treated Rene as a grandson for twelve years but when his demon-blood awoke, Grandfather had him strapped down to a table for two weeks while they titrated holy water into his eye. His file says determining the exact holy water exposure needed to overcome demonic healing was an ‘interesting data point’.”

“Your Grandfather is a nasty piece of work,” Shura agreed. “But you’re going to have to tell me every last thing if I’m going to be able to help you get out of it.”

“You’re here to infiltrate the Facility,” Yukio said.

“The Grigori don’t trust Egin,” Shura admitted. “But what you’ve told me, that isn’t enough of an excuse to shut him down.”

Yukio grimaced. “No one cares that they’re torturing kids here because they’re half or quarter demons.”

Shura gave him a cool look. “That’s right, just like none of the higher ups gave a damn when you nearly got that brother you love so much, killed.” She might as well have slapped Yukio. “They might care that he’s breeding high-level demons but they won’t care that he’s testing weapons on them.”

Yukio sat on the floor and leaned back against the wall to look up at Shura. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“Egin’s always been ambitious,” Shura said. “So tomorrow when you back to work you start keeping your ears open. He’s not the sort to be happy in a support position. Before the the Blue Night he was poised to overthrow the other two members of the Grigori and take sole power. Everything we know about him says he’s looking to get there again. Find out what he’s up to and you’ve got your ticket out… And in the mean time, you don’t even have to give up your pet project.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Mother Goose”: Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home. You’re house is on fire, your children will burn.
> 
> “Who killed Cock Robin” is also an English nursery rhyme but not “Mother Goose”
> 
> I will be taking a break from this story for awhile to switch back to events with Rin and company in Japan. Because Echidna isn’t just the Mother of Monsters she is also the daughter of Gaia and thus Amaimon’s half-sister. But Yukio’s been in Rio for around eight months now and life hasn’t been stagnant in Japan since he’s been gone.


	9. Infiltrator

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I am one of those anal comic-book readers who actually cares when Wolverine is in space in “Astonishing X-Men” and at the Xavier Institute in “Uncanny X-Men” in stories that happen at the same exact time.
> 
> Dec: Yukio is exiled to Rio.
> 
> Jan: The Tokyo Exorcists Exam gets cancelled. The Exwires less Rin start their 3rd term at the True Cross Academy of Tokyo
> 
> Feb: Yukio starts his 2nd year at the True Cross Academy of Rio (skipping the 3rd term of his first year and switching from a 3 term school year to a 2 term year).
> 
> April: Rin restarts his 1st year in High School and starts his 2nd year as an Exwire. 
> 
> May: Indigo turns six, is removed from Yukio’s test group and is killed. Yukio agrees to spy on the Facility for Shura.
> 
> Early June: Rio Winter Break starts
> 
> Late July: Tokyo Summer Break starts / Rio 2nd term starts 
> 
> August: Kyoto Arc takes place. Shiemi, Shima and Amaimon travel to Brazil
> 
> Early Sept: Meda’s sixth birthday...

Yukio canted his head back and stared up at the Mountain.

_“If you need more time to get your head together I could work out a story,” Shura had offered that morning._

_“Disruptions to my schedule will raise suspicions,” Yukio pointed out. “Besides, this is nothing new. I’ve been lying to the person closest to me since I was seven.”_

‘This is nothing new,’ Yukio repeated to himself. He remembered being seven years old, learning that his twin was one of the things that had terrified him for so long and not allowing himself to flinch a few hours later when Rin hugged him because Rin was never supposed to know the truth. ‘Compared to that, being Shura’s spy will be easy.’

Yukio turned the last corner on the trail and the hidden entrance to the Facility was waiting for him. As he walked past the guard station at the elevator Yukio wondered if the man were one of the ones who’d taken Saul up on his odious offer. 

“Hard day at school, Okumura?” the guard asked cheerfully.

“Compared to an Exorcist’s curriculum? Never,” Yukio replied.

There were no emergencies waiting for him in the Infirmary, just three subjects recovering from their latest injuries. Yukio took a moment to read over their charts. He found himself studying their features, comparing them to his co-workers. Yukio wondered if any of the researchers ever recognized themselves in the faces of their subjects and realized that they were killing their own children.

Saul walked out of his office. “You took off awfully quickly yesterday?”

‘Test time.’ Yukio thought. “That was a revolting suggestion,” he said knowing he couldn’t pretend his initial reaction had never happened. “Practically like sleeping with a corpse.”

Saul shrugged. “All you had to say was ‘no thanks’.” Then he frowned. “Don’t go getting any ideas about the subjects.”

Yukio’s jaw dropped. ‘Does it even occur to him that I might have a problem with committing rape?’ he thought. Then it hit him. ‘Why would it? They didn’t need Rene’s consent to burn his eye out. They don’t ask for volunteers before they start testing their weapons on any of the kids. Why would it occur to them that a demon has any right to determine what happens to their body?’

“Did it ever occur to you that I might have a girlfriend,” Yukio snapped.

“Do you want an answer to that?” Saul teased. “You’re the worst workaholic I’ve ever met; when would you have time to date?” 

Yukio stomped into his office giving every sign of being in a huff but privately glad of the excuse to get away from Saul.

* * *

Several days later Yukio was trying to unobtrusively explore the areas of the Facility where he hadn’t been invited when Rene tracked him down. 

“You have to name the new kid in your group.” Rene gave him a stubborn look that was exactly like Rin’s when confronted with a perceived injustice. “All the other kids have names. You can’t leave him out.”

The idea of naming Indigo’s replace left Yukio with a vague, guilty feeling. If he were smarter, had been more industrious, if he’d worked harder maybe he would have found the means to turn them human already, maybe if he’d tried harder Indigo wouldn’t be dead now. Barely six years old, gassed dissected and toss in a pit like so much trash. And now, because Yukio hadn’t saved Indigo, because Indigo was dead there was a new child in Yukio’s test group. 

Yukio now knew that the Facility wouldn’t let him turn all their subjects human once he succeeded but good science demanded that experiments be repeatable. Once he succeeded they’d have to let him attempt to reproduce his results at least once; Yukio was certain that he could manage to turn all five of his subjects human before the Facility noticed what he was doing. He was utterly certain that his Grandfather was as eager to restore Rene’s humanity as Yukio was. But the Facility would get in the way if he tried to save anyone else.

Because Indigo died his replacement had a much better chance of survival. Because Yukio hadn’t managed to come up with a solution soon enough to save Indigo another child would live in his place. Yukio knew it made no logical sense, he should be glad that the Facility had replaced Indigo and he had access to five children not just four regardless of who the five were, it still sat poorly with Yukio that Indigo could be replaced like a worn out tennis shoe. 

Naming Indigo’s replacement felt like the first step to forgetting the boy. But Rene was staring at him with Rin’s expression and it wasn’t the new boy’s fault that he wasn’t Indigo. Yukio smiled awkwardly. “You know how bad I am at coming up with names,” he excused himself. “I haven’t thought of something that fits yet.”

“I could help,” Rene offered eagerly.

Yukio’s smile became more genuine. Letting Rene name the new child seemed like a good compromise. “What do you suggest?” he asked.

“Kermit,” Rene declared. “Because he’s green.”

“Well cousin, I guess creativity is genetic,” Yukio replied deadpan. “Kermit it is.” 

Rene chuckled. “What are you doing way down here anyway?” he asked a few minutes later. 

“Oh just curious,” Yukio replied with studied casualness. “What happens down here anyway?”

“This level? It’s nothing but a bunch of storerooms,” Rene said. “The level above is where they mass produce the weapons once they decide they’re done testing them. They keep them here until the Order asks for them.”

Yukio thought for a moment. “Rene, could you show me around the Facility? All the places Grandfather and Saul skipped over on their tours? You haven’t been allowed out of this complex in eight years, you probably know every corner.”

Rene scowled. “They only started letting me wander around three years ago,” he said. “And I don’t go places where I’m not supposed to. I don’t want to end up locked my cage all the time again.”

“I’m sorry,” Yukio said, feeling severely chastened. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

Rene shrugged. “I’ll show you what I know; at least you can cross off a lot of places fast.” Then he gave Yukio a sly smile. “And I won’t tell anyone you’re trying to dig up the Facility’s secrets.”

Yukio looked startled. Then he ruffled Rene’s hair and smiled, “Thank you,” he replied. “I’ll take whatever help you can give.”

* * *

A week later when Yukio walked out of his class he found Shura sunning herself on the steps. “What are you still doing in a boring old school room?” she asked. “It’s winter break.”

Yukio sighed and sat down beside her. “Thanks to the difference in the Japanese and Brazilian school year I missed third term. I have to make up those classes or drop back a year.” He grimaced, “Also my Portuguese is less than fluent, even after I spent practically the whole summer break in immersion studies.”

“Ah, don’t tell me the language barrier is getting to you,” Shura replied. “I know your Latin is as good as your Japanese, romance languages should come easy.” 

Yukio glared at her, “Unlike you, I wasn’t granted time to prepare for this posting; I was summarily exiled here. I’m getting by, but my language skills could be better.”

Shura laughed, sat up and draped herself over Yukio’s shoulder. “Aww Yukio, don’t take me so serious. I’m just giving you a hard time.” She smiled at him. “And don’t work late tonight, you’re taking me out to dinner.” For a moment their eyes met and Yukio understood that it wasn’t social or a request. “We’ll meet up at my apartment,” she added.

Yukio spent the rest of the day feeling like he was heading into an examination without having cracked a book. Shura was going to ask him for a report on what he’d found about the Facility, for evidence of a coup and he hadn’t found anything. It took all his self-discipline not to risk raising suspicions by making a last ditch effort to dig up something to give her. He wasn’t used to not having answers. 

That evening Shura took him to a little hole in the wall bar that was situated practically underneath the freeway. The floor was covered in sawdust, the constant rumble of cars going by competed with the jukebox for obnoxiousness and grime took the place of curtains dimming the light coming in through the windows. The other customers nodded to Shura, who was clearly a regular, and stared curiously at Yukio. Shura ordered a drink and spent a few minutes gossiping with the bartender. Yukio quickly realized that any strangers hanging around would have been good gossip and the ambient noise would defeat any listening systems.

“I haven’t found anything yet,” Yukio began apologetically once they’d secured a tiny table in the corner. He tried to avoid bumping knees with Shura under the table but it wasn’t possible. “I learned that they manufacture weapons at the Facility as well as developing them. They have a fairly sizable stock-pile, but nothing that couldn’t be explained away.”

“Yukio, relax,” Shura instructed knocking back her beer and waving for another. “Have some of the soup, it’s good… and the kitchen’s much cleaner than you’d think. That’s more than I expected you to have this soon. Don’t go so fast that you get caught.”

“I’m not careless,” Yukio protested. “Why did you bring me here if you didn’t expect me to have anything?”

“Remember what you said about disruptions to your schedule causing questions?” Shura asked. “I have to be part of your routine. And my apartment is the only place where I can guarantee you’re not being watched. If you need to break-down again, it’s gotta be there and no one can think twice about it.”

Yukio nodded that he understood.

Shura stretched her legs under the table, rubbing them against Yukio’s. “You’re going to have lunch with me on the weekends and dinner twice during the week. You’ll sleep over at least three times a week.” She smirked, “You’re a teenage boy, any less than that would raise suspicions.” 

At Yukio’s shocked look, Shura laughed. “I have a spare bedroom. I might even let you use it.”

After finishing dinner they headed back to Shura’s apartment, on the way they passed by a bookstore. The brightly colored children’s books caught Yukio’s eye. “Wish we could smuggle the kiddies up to see these,” Rene had commented after a late night spent watching a Charlie Brown special on the computer in Yukio’s office. 

“I’m going in for a minute,” Yukio informed Shura. She shrugged and followed him in. She watched curiously while he picked over the children’s books. He ended up buying as many as he could cram into his bookbag. Yukio smiled in self-satisfaction, ‘Even if we can’t smuggle the kids up to my office to watch movies, I can smuggle books into the cell. Reading to them is probably better than TV anyway.’ 

When they left the bookstore Shura wrapped an arm around Yukio’s shoulders and added a bit of stagger to her walk. But as soon as the door to her apartment shut behind them she let her arm drop and stepped away from Yukio. The suddenness of her withdrawal left him feeling oddly bereft. 

“Spare bedroom’s through there,” Shura said. “Make yourself at home… only don’t be too obvious about it. Your cover should hold up even if someone takes it into their head to break in while we’re out.”

Yukio wondered exactly how much Shura had figured out of what had happened in Japan and if she hated him now. He’d been, and still was, willing to sacrifice absolutely everything to ensure that Rin stayed alive. Success in his original plan to keep Rin safe meant Yukio giving up his career, his schooling, even the possibility of friends or a close relationship with anyone other than Rin… And Rin would have been comatosed for the rest of his life. But Yukio had been ready to do it if it kept Rin alive. Still he couldn’t help but feel that it was unfair that he could fail to keep Rin safe, fail Shiro’s faith in him and, in failing, still alienate everyone he’d ever cared about. 

He shut himself in Shura’s spare bedroom and went back to studying his text. He only had three months left before the Facility took Meda away from him.


	10. Daily Grind

Yukio stared at the grade on top of the final of his make-up class utter shock; a B minus. He’d never gotten a worse test grade in his life. He groaned; his homework for his winter-break course hadn’t been the best either, he’d be lucky to get a solid B for the class. He couldn’t imagine how this had happened. Then he glanced at his watch and realized he needed to run to get to the Facility, Saul would be expecting him. 

He’d asked to start his shift in the infirmary earlier so he’d have more time for his research. It also gave him more time to snoop around for Shura, setting his schedule so he worked cross-shifts meant he could spy on both the day and swing shifts. On his late nights he occasionally managed to be around for the beginning of the night shift too. 

Yukio shoved the disappointing test in his bag then hurried across campus to the Facility’s lower entrance. In the infirmary he found Saul in the middle of an operation while a second test subject, a twelve year old boy with pointed ears and tail like Rin’s, was strapped down to the next table waiting to have a burn debrided. “Think you can handle it?” Saul asked nodding to the second patient while his hands were still in the first. 

Yukio leaned over to study the second patient’s wounds: The burns emanated out from welts and he pictured some sort of lash impregnated with anti-demon pharmaceuticals to cause such an injury. The young subject’s demonic regenerative powers were struggling to heal the wound but the contaminant was interfering. The lash marks curled around the boy’s left arm, then ripped across the whole of his back. Yukio grimaced, “They got out of hand again,” he said. “So how much am I to clean up and how much do I have to leave for their research?” 

“Leave the left arm untreated,” Saul instructed. “That shouldn’t be life-threatening and we can collect data on how his regenerative abilities cope with the spotted alder tincture, that should satisfy them.”

“I just need to remove the damaged tissue, the rest should take care of itself?” Yukio checked.

Saul nodded. “You learn quickly.” 

Yukio pulled on a smock and arranged the instruments he needed while boy watched in terror. Summoning up the focus that he was having increasing difficulty finding in class Yukio smiled calmly at the boy. “You’ll feel better shortly,” he promised. Then he set to work making quick clean cuts to excise the contaminated tissue and allow the boy’s own healing to work without hindrance. 

Once he was done and the boy was bandaged and recovering, Yukio stared longingly at his office for a few moments then he sighed. He grabbed a tome on creating Witch Bottles and headed down to the breakroom. Yukio fixed himself a coffee, picked a discreet corner and settled in to superstitiously listen in on the gossip going around the Facility. 

As Yukio sat there listening and trying to research at the same time Rene wandered in and plopped down beside him. An automatic smiled lit Yukio’s face as he watched Rene sprawl bonelessly over the chair. “Going down to visit the kiddies today?” Rene asked.

“Of course,” Yukio said but he looked regretful. “I won’t have much time though. I was just going to check their seals and see that they’re eating properly for the next several weeks while I focus on stabilizing the seals.” 

“Awww!! At least read to us,” Rene whined. “I think it was a really good idea; the twins are starting to talk finally.”

“They don’t talk to me,” Yukio replied but he couldn’t help but look pleased. ‘When I succeed it will be much easier to place them for adoption if they’re not feral,’ he thought

“So go get the books, project literacy is having an impact,” Rene pled.

“Yes, alright,” Yukio surrendered, unable to disappoint Rene’s hopeful expression. 

As he walked into the infirmary Yukio glanced around for Saul, he spotted the older doctor inspecting the patient he’d worked on earlier. Yukio went to his office and covertly opened the bottom draw of his desk. He pulled the draw all the way out, hidden behind the files was his stash of childrens books. Yukio glanced over at Saul again and seeing the man was busily making notes and poking at the boy’s untreated left arm, he quickly put a few of the books into his bag. “I’m going down t o the cages to check on my bunch’s seals. I’ll be back up in a couple of hours and I’ll be staying late. I’m not getting as far in my research as I’d like. I can take notes on my patient’s arm while I’m here, no need for both of us to stay late,” Yukio said. 

“Thanks,” Saul replied. “My wife will certainly be glad to see me home on time for once. And good work on the debridement today if I’m gone before you get back up.”

Yukio waved and let himself back out into the hallway where Rene was waiting. “You got them?” he asked. Yukio nodded to his bag. 

Down on level five the guard waved the two of them in with a bored look. 

As soon as the children in the cell spotted them through the bars they crowded around the door. 

Felix reached through the bars and tugged on Rene’s pant leg. When the older boy crouched down Yukio heard a whispered demand, “Re-re play!” Yukio smiled softly and hurried to get the door unlocked. Both Felix and his twin, Leo, retained their cat-eyes but looked otherwise human at the moment.

As soon as Rene stepped into the cell the twins immediately swarmed gleefully over him. Leo made it up to Rene’s shoulders first. When the four-year-old stopped to stick his tongue out at his slower sibling Yukio plucked Leo off Rene and did a quick check of the seal inked on his stomach before releasing him to return to his game of King of Mount Rene. Then he performed the same check on Felix. 

With the twins done Yukio offered a picture book to Meda in exchange for her cooperation. She grasped his hand and stared into his eyes for a time then, with serious sympathy, she told him. “There was a man of double deed, sowed his garden full of seed. When the seed began to grow, ‘twas like a garden full of snow; when the snow began to melt, ‘twas like a ship without a belt; when the ship began to sail, ‘twas like a bird without a tail; when the bird began to fly, ‘twas like an eagle in the sky; when the sky began to roar, ‘twas like a lion at the door; When the door began to crack, ‘twas like a stick across my back; when my back began to smart, ‘twas like a penknife in my heart; when my heart began to bleed, ‘twas death and death and death indeed.”

Yukio only understood that Meda was predicting doom, he assumed it was her approaching birthday that worried her and patted her on the hand. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you,” he promised. 

Meda frowned and squeezed his hand, repeating ‘’When my heart began to bleed, ‘twas DEATH and DEATH and DEATH indeed.”

Meda’s skin was scalier that it had been the day before and Yukio was unsurprised to find her seal had begun to unravel once again. “Yes, I suppose your demon-heart is starting to bleed through again,” Yukio replied. “But I know how to stanch it. You have to trust me.” 

He made eye contact with Rene for a moment, the older boy nodded and went to lean against the bars where he could watch for the guard. Yukio led Meda back to the bunk at the back of the cell and dug a small supply of sealing ink out of his bag. Since Indigo’s death they’d been maintaining the fiction that the seals were working by refreshing them secretly in the cell. Yukio hoped that no one would remove Meda from his study group while her seal was apparently holding.

Once he was done with Meda’s seal Yukio handed a bottle of formula to Kermit. Despite the seal painted on his stomach the little three year old’s skin retained a deep emerald color. The seals that had been making the other four notably more human had no effect at all on Kermit. Yukio wondered if the boy came from a different blood-line and if so what did that mean for the project’s applicability to Rin. Would he have to start all over again with Rin? And how could he manage that when Mephisto’s sanction had prevented him from receiving any word of his twin since December. The only gap Mephisto had missed had given Yukio nothing more than an elicit peek at Rin’s grades.

Kit sulked visibly while Yukio checked Kermit over. But as soon as the green skinned boy was released the youngest of the children leapt at Yukio, wrapping his little arms tightly around the older boy’s neck and burrowing against him. Yukio rubbed between Kit’s fox-like ears for a moment then disentangled him enough to check his seal. 

With all the check-ups done Yukio pulled another of the books out of his bag. He gave Kit a bottle and settled him in the crook of his arm then opened the book. Rene plopped down on the floor in front of him, Felix and Leo squirmed for space in Rene’s lap. Meda laid aside the book she’d been looking at and cautiously crept closer to the circle. Kermit, much to Kit’s annoyance leaned up against Yukio’s side. “Big A, Little a, what begins with A?” Yukio read.

* * *

When Yukio left the Facility late that night Egin’s driver was waiting for him.

“You pulled a long day today,” Egin remarked as Yukio sat down to dinner across from him in Egin’s elegant dining room.

“I apologize if I’ve inconvenienced your staff,” Yukio replied.

Egin smiled and waved off the apology. “No need. I’m just a bit envious of your youthful enthusiasm and energy. It has been a long time since I have had the endurance to survive your schedule.”

Yukio bowed his head slightly, as if covering embarrassment.

“I am a bit concerned about your GPA,” Egin added a beat later. “I know high school classes must seem trivial next to what you’ve accomplished as an Exorcist but you will want to be able to get into a top ranked medical program in a few years.” 

Yukio frowned. “Studying medicine was just something to tell Rin back when he didn’t know. As an Exorcist I’m already a doctor.”

Egin folded his hands benevolently. “Naturally your skills, when it comes to the treatment of temptaints and other spiritual wounds, are immeasurably superior to a civilian doctor’s,” he said. “However when it comes to treating physical wounds you are more comparable to a front-line medic than a doctor in terms of your training.”

“I don’t know of any Exorcist doctors who also hold an actual MD,” Yukio argued. “Not even Dad.”

“Saul does,” Egin corrected. “And he’s far from the only one of your current colleagues who has attained an advanced degree. In addition to medical doctors, the Facility’s exorcists also hold PhD’s in physics, biology, chemistry, multiple branches of Engineering. This is a research facility Yukio, not a one of the Order’s combat branch like Tokyo or Kyoto. Here, if you don’t get a doctorate of some kind your potential for advancement will be limited.” 

“But the work I’ve done-” Yuko protested.

“Is phenomenal,” Egin interrupted. “The advances you’ve made in understanding the opening of gates between Assiah and Gehenna alone… To be honest I’ve been looking for the right moment to talk to you about transferring you to the Messiah Project. Instead of wasting your time trying to eliminate demons one by one you could be working toward the eradication of all demons, of all Gehenna, in one fell stroke.”

“But don’t neglect your regular studies,” Egin continued, switching tracks. “You should consider putting your career as an Exorcist on hold altogether while you attend college . Demons have plagued mankind since the days of Genesis, deliverance can wait six or seven years while you get a degree.”

“But Rin and Rene can’t,” Yukio disagreed. “Even switching to the Messiah Project would be a setback in saving them. I am literally days from a breakthrough.” 

Egin nodded indulgently. “Well, in that case I suppose the salvation of Assiah can wait a bit, but do keep the new term in mind.”

The rest of dinner was spent making small talk. Then while the plates were being cleared away, Egin began, “I know you said it was none of my business, but about that Kirigakure woman…”

* * *

“Yo! Lover-boy!” Shura shouted standing outside of Yukio’s dorm Saturday evening. “Get your ass out here!”

A number of students poked their heads out the windows to stare at Shura with a mixture of disbelief and admiration.

Yukio rolled his eyes at Shura’s latest annoying nickname. “I’ll be down in a minute. Stop disturbing my neighbors.”

Shura put her hands behind her head and arched her back, putting her ‘assets’ on display. “Who’s disturbed?” she asked.

“So crass,” Yukio sighed loudly. He added a few texts to his bookbag then locked his room and walked downstairs.

“Batting cages?” Shura offered.

Yukio nodded. It was a waste of time he didn’t have but during the practice sessions with Shura he felt more normal than he’d felt in well over a year. Even if it was a waste of time, Yukio couldn’t ignore that he thought better afterwards. He sometimes wondered if things would have gone better in Japan if he’d had the ability to stop and clear his mind every now and then. 

As soon as the balls started flying he and Shura fell into an easy rhythm banter while they took down target after target. If there’d been any listeners the noise of the batting machine would have covered their conversation but Shura didn’t ask for a report and Yukio didn’t have any real progress to mention so he let the subject lie and just pretended he was still eight and Shiro would be there to console him if, when, Shura won again. 

The sun set before a clear winner had been established, “I’m a mess,” Shura declared. “Let’s go back to my place for a shower then I’ll make you dinner.”

“Fine,” Yukio agreed. 

As they walked through the deepening gloom Yukio caught sight of several La Llorona stalking them but they weren’t accosted. “They’re waiting to see what we do,” Shura said softly as she looped her arm through Yukio’s. For the rest of the way to her apartment she leaned up against him as they walked.

“Okay, I get the first shower,” Shura announced when her door had been closed behind them.

“You’re not going to suggest showering together?” Yukio asked, eyeing her as if he suspected an imposture.

Shura glanced at him in surprise then shrugged. “Didn’t want you to spew again. It’s best if we look like lovers in public but I wasn’t going to tease too hard in private.”

“You’ve succeed,” Yukio remarked. “Egin gave me another grandfatherly talk about you.”

“Oh?” Shura asked. “And what did he have to say?”

“He ‘understands’ having sex with you but he’d rather I didn’t talk to you,” Yukio replied wryly. “He thinks you might have been sent to spy on him.”

Shura widened her eyes ingenuously , “Who would imagine?” 

“Innocence doesn’t suit you,” Yukio remarked.

“We’ll have a drink to making the old fart unhappy,” Shura replied.

“I’d rather not,” Yukio said. “Alcohol was the largest factor in my vomiting before. As for the rest, it was a shock to be confronted so bluntly with the depths of the Facility’s depravity, but I’ve recovered my equanimity now. You don’t have to treat me like china.” 

“You wouldn’t lie to me would you?” Shura asked sceptically. After all it had taken better than two months for Yukio to decide to comment on her giving him his space once they were in her apartment. 

Yukio dropped his bookbag on the kitchen table. “Normality has a certain appeal right now,” he admitted. “And for some reason, when it comes to you, I associate crass, inappropriate behavior with normal.”

“Awww,” Shura laughed. “Just for that I think I’m going to use up all the hot water.”

While Shura showered Yukio went back to his research. He was sure he on the verge of discovering how Rin’s demon-heart had been separated from his brother and placed in the Koma Sword. That was the final key. As long as he kept sealing his kids’ demon-hearts within their own bodies the hearts ate at seals and caused them to fail within a matter of weeks. But, judging from Rin, seals applied to a separate and inanimate object like the sword were much more stable.

True to her word, Shura left Yukio with only a few moments of lukewarm water before his shower turned outright icy, so she hadn’t gotten on preparing dinner before Yukio was done, “Back already?” Shura asked as she handed him a bowl of potatoes to peel. Yukio handed them back to her and went back to his books. “I’ll get the dishes,” he offered. 

“Suit yourself,” Shura said. 

After they finished dinner Shura sat at the kitchen table nursing a beer while she watched Yukio scrub. “So, learn anything new at work?” she asked.

“Exorcists at the Facility, by and large, consider themselves vastly superior to those serving in other branches of the Order,” Yukio reported. “Hardly damning. The Facility tends to be extremely conservative about putting new weapons into the field; which means they have weapons two or three generations more advanced than anyone else in the Order, but if confronted about it they could easily claim that they didn’t wish to risk lives by putting inadequately tested weapons into service.” He slapped the counter with an open hand. “I know you’re right about the coup, but I can’t find incontrovertible proof. The only atrocities they put on display are ones the Grigori would approve of.”

“The Grigori doesn’t like Egin,” Shura reminded Yukio. “Enough circumstantial evidence and they’ll jump on it.”

“In a month?” Yukio asked.

“Maybe, probably not that soon without hard evidence,” Shura admitted. “Why the deadline?”

Yukio ignored her question. “And even if the Grigori did come in, it still wouldn’t save them,” he continued. “700 feral kids under the age of six, mostly quarter demons, another hundred odd quarter and half demons between the ages of six and twenty who’ve known nothing but cruelty. A hundred and fifty half-demon girls, almost all of them pregnant, who have been in a drug induced coma since... I don’t even know how old they let them get before they put them in the tubes, but they were children the last time they were conscious. Even if the Order shuts this place down, what is the Vatican going to do with them?”

Shura knocked back her drink then opened another can and chugged it. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe the younger ones can be re-educated so they don’t loath humanity. Maybe we toss ‘em in Gehenna and hope the demons will see them as their own when we can’t. Maybe the La Llorona’s ‘She’ has a plan. I don’t know. At least it’ll end.” 

Yukio put the last of the dishes up then went back to his books. Shura went in the living room to write her report to the Grigori. “Stay the night,” she told Yukio even though he’d already slept, or at least studied, in her spare room the last two nights. “Gotta keep up appearances.”

* * *

Amaimon and Shima with Sheimi on his back waded out of fissure in a sheer cliff face. They found themselves staring out over a desolate valley, the air was thin and cold from the altitude. “Where are we?” Shima asked. Where ever it was it didn’t feel like August to him.

“Nevado Mismi, Mr. Shima, the birthplace of the Amazon river.” The trio turned and saw a dark haired man with a patch over his left eye and a blonde woman waiting for them. 

“Michelle! Neuhaus-Sensei!” Shiemi exclaimed. 

Michelle smiled gently and gathered both Shiemi and Shima into a hug. “Gaia told me you’d be coming,” she said. “I’m glad we managed to get here in time to meet you.”

“Come on,” Neuhaus said gruffly. “We’ve got a hike just to get back to our base camp, then another day of walking before we get back to our truck.” He turned to Shima, “You and I will take turns carrying the girl. The way I understand it, Michelle and the Hell King here are too much Gaia’s creatures to break her connection with the earth. If they tried to carry her, Gaia’s power would flow right through them and into the Earth.” Then he turned to Amaimon. “Tomorrow we’ll get some use out of that monster strength of yours anyway. You get to carry the gear.”

Amaimon shrugged, disinterested.

“Once we get back to the truck we’ll drive toward Lake Titacaca, then we’ll skirt around the lake and into Bolivia,” Michelle took over. “All told we’re assuming a little better than a week of driving to reach Rio de Janeiro. That’s where Gaia’s agents found Echidna.”

“It’d be faster to fly,” Neuhaus remarked as he turned to Shiemi. “But I doubt we could get you through airport security without your feet ever touching the ground.”

“I’m sorry to be so much trouble to everyone,” Shiemi said.

Michelle laughed. “Igor is just being difficult. I can’t go through airports either. It’s a bit hard to get your passport renewed when you’re technically dead.” She smiled, “Besides, this way we’ll be passing nearby Pantanal. Once we get there you’ll be able to stretch your legs. The Earth Kingdom is already so strong the tropical wilds that the overflow of Gaia’s power coming from you won’t make a difference.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yukio is reading “Dr. Suess’ ABC’s Book”. Meda’s poem is anonymous but comes from Mother Goose.


	11. Lake in the Clouds

A rusted-out, once-blue pickup truck rumbled down the highway alongside Lake Titicaca. Shima and Shiemi stared at the vast, alpine lake in amazement as the road wound along side it. Amaimon regarded the large body of water suspiciously. The three of them sat in the back of the pickup along with the camping supplies. Shima had kicked the tent into something that could pass for a cushion for himself and Shiemi. They sat on top of the lumpy canvas and leaned back against the cab of the pickup with a shared blanket spread over their legs. Amaimon crouched near one of the wheel wells picking at his pointed teeth with a toothpick, completely unaffected by the cold wind generated by the truck’s passage.

Michelle opened the window separating the bed from the pickup’s cab and leaned out. “The world’s highest navigable lake,” she said playing tourist guide. “We’ll stick to the coastline and cross over into Bolivia by evening.” 

Out of nowhere a jet of water shot out of the lake and struck Amaimon in the chest. The Earth King was knocked out of the truck. 

Shima grabbed Shiemi and pushed her flat to the bed of the truck. On the road behind them they saw Amaimon stand up, a gaping hole in his side. “Come out and fight, Bastard-nii!” he shouted angrily at the lake. 

Neuhaus glanced at the water and swore. He hit the gas in an attempt to escape but it was a futile effort. The next jet of water sent the truck spinning off the road. In the back of the truck bed Shiemi and Shima tried to hang on and ignore the loose camping gear battering them as the truck spun. 

Amaimon ducked under a second jet of water aim at him and slapped his hands against the ground. The hillside behind them trembled and a landslide of dirt crashed into the lake turning the water near them into a stew of mud and debris. “Coward! Stop trying to making me play on your ground,” he shouted. 

A demon strode out of the depths of the lake. He was generally human in appearance, heavily muscled with weathered skin that was a light blue in color. His eyes were a deep indigo and his hair and beard were white like sea foam. He wore a double breasted navy jacket with long tails and an elaborate gold braid stitched down the broad lapels over tight fitted breeches, the demon looked like a naval officer from the 1800s complete with a plumed admiral’s hat topping his long white hair. “Don’t call me your brother you upstart brat!” Egyn ordered. “Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. I’ve better things to do than to put you in your place again.” Another jet of water raked Amaimon’s position. 

Amaimon tried to leap clear but an almost invisibly narrow spray caught him leaving a gash in his thigh. The Earth King crashed to the ground, he grabbed his injured leg and tried to force it to heal faster.

Egyn started toward the truck. “I hear your mother walks the earth again,” he commented over his shoulder. 

Neuhaus bit his hand and smeared the blood across a summoning circle. Two naberius materialized as he and Michelle pulled themselves out of the truck. 

“A worthy consort of the son of Tiamat finally appears,” Egyn declared. “A joining of Earth and Sea to rule the world. Lady Gaia I would have you as my mate!”

Shima picked Shiemi up and jumped out of the truck bed on the mountain side of the road. As Sheimi’s feet touched the ground flowers instantly sprung into existence. “Run,” Shima told her. “Don’t worry about anything else.” A small push startled Shiemi into obeying. Shima followed a step behind her, keeping himself between Sheimi and Egyn.

Thick strands of webbings shot out from the spiders crawling over Michelle and entangled Egyn. The mud beneath his bare feet softened into quicksand. The naberius darted lightly across the wet sand on four broad paws and tore at Egyn’s legs as he sunk into the mire. Amaimon leapt on Egyn’s shoulders and pounded the older demon without restraint. 

“Yamantaka?” Shima tried to will his familiar’s flames into existence but felt no response from the flame demon. He urged Shiemi onward. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another jet of water heading toward them and shifted into it’s path. At the last moment a cloak of black flames enveloped him. The air was filled with hiss of steam and water and flames met. Despite Yamantaka’s shield Shima felt like a massive hammer had slammed into his back. His ribs groaned in protest, the air fled his lungs. For a moment his vision turned black.

_Renzo lept off the bottom of the double slide and raced for stairs trying to get to them ahead of Bon._

_A dark haired young man leaned back against the low wall surrounding the playground, watching them while talking on his cell phone._

_Bon pounded up the steps barely a step behind Renzo. As the play structure widen out he threw himself ahead, grabbing the bar over the slide and swinging his legs forward without a moment’s hesitation. Renzo threw himself down the other slide. The two boys raced for the bottom then ran for the steps again, pushing and jostling to be first._

_“Play nice Ren!” For a moment Renzo thought it was Juu-nii holding his cell away from his mouth as he shouted._

_Renzo stuck out his tongue at his older brother then smirked and turned to Bon. Bon grinned. “Take and Sakura sitting in a tree,” the two boys sing-songed. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”_

_“Brats,” Take said affectionately. Then his eyes moved past them and the cell dropped from his hand as he scrambled to grab his staff. “Run!” he shouted._

Shima blinked at the sky and tried drag air back into his lungs. He heard fighting, then saw Amaimon sail over his head and slam into rocky shore. Shima rolled to his side. He saw one of Neuhaus’ naberius ripped in half by a jet of water and Michelle’s webbing torn through like tissue paper. Shiemi tried to run but a wave swept her back to the shore. 

The Water King grabbed her around the waist and tossed her over his shoulder. Laughing he turned his back on them and strode into the lake, unbothered by the icy water rising around him. A spray of water swirled around them and they vanished. “Shiemi!” Shima shouted.

“Egyn! Give back my priestess you jerk!” Amaimon shouted stomping his foot.

* * *

Shiemi panicked as the lake water closed over her head. She kicked and struggled to no avail against Egyn’s demonic strength. He carried her deeper and deeper into the lake. The sunlight rapidly vanished as they descended into the murky depths, leaving the water lit only by the twilight glow emanating from their bodies. 

Gradually it occurred to Shiemi that she wasn’t drowning. “Please let me go,” she requested. “Put me down, I promised Gaia…”

“Hush vessel, I would speak only to the one you carry,” Egyn reprimanded her. 

Sheimi gasped as she saw a pyramidal ziggurat rising from the bed of the lake. Long, broad ramps joined the stepped terraces of the structure, underwater gardens of seaweed and aquatic plants graced the tops of the terraces. Egyn carried her through the massive god-door at the top of the temple and Shiemi found herself in a palatial room. 

The Water King set her on a small dias and stepped back smiling broadly. “Lady Gaia, welcome to my humble abode. I would pay court to thee. I am Egyn! King of Water! True born son of Tiamat. A much more worthy consort than that brat Amaimon, he is far too tainted with his father’s blood, despite your kindly influence.” 

Shiemi felt Gaia stir and unfold within her. She was gently but inextricably shifted back while Gaia moved to the fore. It felt strange to feel her body stand and move with no direction from herself, to be just a passenger. 

Gaia stood before Egyn in Shiemi’s body. She took a moment to survey him. “You aren’t displeasing, Son of Tiamat,” she declared as she reached up to unbutton his shirt and spread it wide to better pursue his broad chest. 

Inside her mind, Shiemi buried her face in her hands, utterly mortified by how her body was acting. 

Gaia leisurely explored Egyn’s chest, then she stepped back and flicked a hand upward. A number of kudzu vines sprouted from the temple floor. They wrapped themselves around Egyn’s legs, sending their roots into his flesh. “But your wooing is most discourteous,” she said.

Egyn grimaced as the vines began to suck away his power, but he stood straight and proud. “I merely sought to relieve you of unworthy company as expeditiously as possible.”

Gaia’s vines constricted, forcing Egyn to his knees.

Shiemi squeaked in alarm as Gaia leaned down slightly and pressed her mouth to the Water King’s. 

He began to struggle as she drank his power down. His muscles withered, leaving him a cadaverous husk. As his body began to tremble with weakness Gaia released his mouth, she trailed a hand down his body. “I decide who is worthy of my company,” she declared, wrapping a strong, slim hand around him. Egyn groaned in mixed pain and pleasure. 

Shiemi froze, she didn’t want to feel his- his thing in her hand. She didn’t know him, didn’t like him. He’d kidnapped her, hurt her friends. She didn’t want to be touching him. This was wrong. //Stop! STOP!// she shouted at Gaia. 

//Hush little one,// Gaia replied to Shiemi in their mind. //He needs to be taught a lesson.//

“Perhaps I will take this with me,” Gaia suggested aloud, her tone cold and a bit bored. “Then I could give you the children you desire without being bothered by your presumptuous self.” 

Her hand tightened and twisted. A pained whimper escaped Egyn and his eyes filled with fear.

“These things lead men into all sorts of rashness,” Gaia continued. “Perhaps without it you could learn to show proper respect.” 

Shiemi saw the terror in Egyn’s eyes and struggled back to the surface. “No! Enough!” she declared. She stepped back and hid her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry,” she said, horrified. Then in a stronger tone she repeated. “I’m sorry, but I am not interested! I’m leaving now, don’t bother us again.” 

Gaia’s vines retracted, without their support Egyn crashed to the floor. He huddled on hands and knees gasping for breath. 

“I’m sorry,” Shiemi said again. A single tear welled up in her eye and was washed away by the lake. She turned to leave. 

Egyn reached out and the lake water retracted leaving Shiemi’s tear glittering on his fingertip like a gem.

* * *

Cradling his aching ribs Shima joined Amaimon at the water’s edge. “How do we get her back?” he asked.

Amaimon’s familiar, Behemoth, scurried to his master’s side and offered a lump of clay. Amaimon gave the hobgoblin an affectionate pat then used the clay to patch the hole in his side.

“Well?” Shima demanded impatiently.

“We wait,” Amaimon said never taking his eyes off the water. “Mom’s having words with Bastard-nii.”

Shima wrinkled his nose. “Your older brother wanting to get together with your mom; that is so wrong.”

“Why?” Amaimon asked.

Neuhaus chuckled as he and Michelle joined the pair. “Recall your mythology Mr. Shima: Gaia and Egyn would be positively tame. They aren’t even blood relatives.”

Shiemi’s head broke the surface of the lake and Amaimon waded out to her. He captured her chin in his hand and studied her eyes closely.

After a moment a worried frown creased Shiemi’s forehead. “Is something wrong? Did I change again?”

“Oh, I forgot,” Amaimon said. His lips turned up in a toothy smile. “You’re still you. That’s good. This is the good-face right?”

Shiemi giggled. But once started she couldn’t stop, the giggle turned into hysterical laughter then she buried her face against Amaimon’s shoulder and started sobbing. Amaimon stood there stiffly, hands at his sides until Shima waded out, picked Shiemi up with a grunt of pain as his ribs protested and carried her back to the truck. 

“Hey, hey. Whatever happened it’s over now,” he cooed. “You got away. You’re safe now.”

Shiemi twisted around and started scrubbing her hands roughly against the canvas of the rolled-up tent. “I thought she was nice, but she- she-”

“She?” Shima looked confused. He’d figured Egyn must have done something to hurt Shiemi before she escaped.

Michelle sat down on the tailgate and rubbed Shiemi’s back. “Gaia is an elder god. She’s power, she’s earthquakes and mountains rising as continents crash together. She can reshape creation. And she’s a mother. Egyn got between her and the rescue of her child; he got ran over.”

“She- she didn’t have to- We could have just left but-” Shiemi scrubbed her hands harder.

“No picking up Rin-kun’s bad habits,” Shima protest wrapping his hands around hers. 

“We should keep moving, in case the Hell King regroups,” Neuhaus stated. “The truck will still run. If we can get it on the road, we’ll be in La Paz in a few more hours.” He eyed Shiemi warily. “If you’re going to melt down, wait until we get hotel room. We can probably avoid side-effect if you’re a few stories off the ground.”

Shiemi bit her lip and nodded.

“Lord Amaimon, could you help me?” Michelle asked. Together the Hell King and Golem lifted the truck back onto the road. 

Neuhaus cranked the motor a few times, then it caught. “Let’s go,” he said.

* * *

_“Ni-san! Ni-san!” Indigo shouted. He threw himself into Rin’s arms, hugging the older boy tightly._

_Rin smiled fondly and reached between Indigo’s horns to ruffled his hair._

_And then they were standing in the morgue. Indigo’s body lay on the table, chest cracked open to display curdled, blackened organs. Yukio looked down at the clipboard in his hands, he was cataloging the precise effects of the gas that had killed the little boy._

_“How could you?” Rin asked. “He wasn’t a monster, just a little kid like me. And you killed him. Dad would be ashamed of you.”_

_“I- I didn’t kill him,” Yukio protested._

_Rin shrugged. “You stood by and let him die. How’s that different?”_

_“What else could I do? I’m working as fast as I can. When I figure out how to make them human I’ll save them all. I’ll finally be able to save you.”_

_“And until then you’ll just let them die.” Rin accused._

_“I’m on the verge of a breakthrough,” Yukio protested. “I’m going to figure it out before they take Meda. I will, watch me.”_

_“The clock’s ticking down. Two weeks until her 6th birthday and then how many days until her death?” Rin asked._

_“I’ll make it,” Yukio insisted._

_“What if you don’t?” Rin asked. “I’d never stand by and let someone murder a little kid like that. Dad wouldn’t either. He didn’t let me get killed did he? But you would. If you had’ve been in Dad’s place you would have decided it wasn’t prudent to save me. You would have killed me. Just like you killed Indigo. Just like you’re going to kill Meda.”_

_“I wouldn’t, I’d never let anyone hurt you,” Yukio protested._

_“No,” Rin agreed, but his tone was hard and unforgiving. “You won’t let anyone else hurt me, you enjoy doing it yourself too much.”_

Yukio jerked awake, he stared around himself wildly for a moment then woke fully. He took off his glasses for a moment and rubbed at the side of his face where the frames had creased his temple while he slept. For a moment he held the glasses out in front of him, trying to judge if he’d bent them. Yukio sighed sadly remembering when his Dad or Rin had been there to rescue his glasses when he fell asleep over his studies.

He glanced at the time and grimaced. ‘Three hours lost.’ Yukio grabbed a quick shower to make sure he was awake then decided to forego breakfast. ‘Shura forced me to eat with her yesterday,’ he justified.

After his shower he spent another hour taking notes on several Babylonian incantations that he believed could be used in conjunction with his seals to ensure a clean separation between his kids and their demon-hearts.

His cellphone buzzed. Yukio glanced at it and swore. He threw his school books in his bag and sprinted for the door. At the last moment he snatched up the Babylonian text as well.

Yukio slid into the back row of seats. While the professor lectured on the conjugation of Portuguese Yukio lost himself in Babylonian pronunciation guides. Fifty minutes later the other students filed out of the room. Yukio continued diligently scribbling notes.

“I hate to disturb a student who is working so industriously,” the professor said as he tapped Yukio on the shoulder. “Although clearly not on my class.”

Yukio flushed in embarrassment, “Mousiwake arimasen,” he apologized. At the teacher’s look his flush deepened. “I’m very sorry,” he repeated, this time in Portuguese. “Excuse me please. I don’t wish to be late for my next class. I’m very sorry. I won’t allow myself to be distracted again,” Yukio continued apologizing as he backed out of the classroom.


	12. Scales Fall

“So, you okay?” Shima asked Shiemi, leaning close to be heard over the wind as the truck rolled along the road between La Paz and Santa Cruz. He considered putting an arm around her shoulders then thought better of it.

“I’m fine,” Shiemi replied with a tense smile. When she saw Shima trying to think of a nice way to continue probing she said, “When Egyn attacked us, you let him hit you on purpose so his attack wouldn’t hit me. Why would you do that?”

“Just putting a life-time of training to good use,” Shima deflected.

“But, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Shiemi protested. 

“Aww, but Shiemi-chan is a cute little girl. You gotta let me be a man,” Shima teased.

Shiemi looked stubborn.

“I said I wanted to go for aria, but the truth is I’m a knight,” Shima answered more seriously. “I literally can’t remember a time when I wasn’t being trained to protect Bon.” He shrugged, “No one ever bothered to ask me if I wanted to be a bodyguard, but that’s what I’m trained to do. Plus you are a very cute girl and I like you so it’s kinda reflexive to shield you when stuff like that happens.” He grinned, “I’d hesitated a lot more if it were Bon, he makes a lousy princess.”

Shiemi looked down at her hands for a bit, mulling over what Shima had said. “Do you resent it a lot?” she asked.

For a minute the only sound was the wind and Amaimon snoring on the other side of the truck bed. Shiemi started to think Shima wasn’t going to answer. “Yeah, actually I do,” he admitted. “Not Bon as much as you’d think. I don’t want to die for him, but he’s not a bad guy. I think, if I did survive Bon, he’d be the only one who wouldn’t hold it against me… Not because he’d be dead, but because Bon wants to take the risks himself.”

Shima stared off into the distance for a moment. “When Bon and I were three, we got attacked by a demon. I don’t really remember a whole lot about it, but I came away with a masho and Bon didn’t get a scratch. I was three, you’d think that’d be more than anyone could ask! But it’s never enough until you’re dead.”

Shiemi leaned slightly against Shima’s shoulder. 

“My older brother, Take, was watching us, he died. Take was supposed to be the next family head, he’d just gotten married, he wasn’t a totally expendable fifth son.” Shima grimaced, “Since then I don’t think my family’s ever gone longer than seventy-two hours without reminding me that Take died doing my job and I’ve got to live up to his sacrifice. The only thing about me that they find even remotely valuable is that I was born in the same year as Bon. And once we get out of high school that won’t matter anymore. Once we’re out of high school it won’t stand out if Bon’s got one of my older brothers hanging around him all the time. If I’m still alive when Bon turns eighteen then I’ve failed Take’s memory. I didn’t do anything with my life that Kinzo couldn’t have. But nobody tells Bon he’s got to be worth it, worth dying for. 

“The one thing I really do like about Bon is that no one has to,” Shima admitted. “He drives himself like hell. Bon’s determined to be a good leader for the Myodha. If I thought the Myodha were worth dying for, I’d be happy to have Bon as my primary. But at the end of the day it’s not even Bon I’m supposed to protect, it’s the High Priest’s blood line. Bon could have been a total jackass like that Suzuki brat in with the first-years and the expectation would be the same.” He leaned back against the cab of the pickup and laughed. “I bet it’s driving my family round the bend; me taking off and leaving Rin in my place. When I was ten this friend of mine and I had a plan: When it came time for me to swear fealty to Bon I was going to refuse and she was going to step up and do it in my place. I would have gotten to say a big, public ‘screw you’ to my family, Nishiki would have gotten to steal the lime-light from her big sis for once. But this is even better. In addition to not being a Shima, Rin’s not even Myodha.”

Shiemi’s mouth compressed into an unhappy line. She didn’t know the rest of Shima’s family, but she could only imagine that Tsuzo had been worried sick when her little brother vanished without a word. Still, Shiemi remembered how she’d only seen her mother getting in the way of her efforts to honor her grandmother’s memory and hadn’t seen her mother’s worry for her well-being until Rin had forced her to step outside of herself.

“Honestly, I think Rin’s a good partner for Bon,” Shima continued. “They’ve both got that whole ‘defeat Satan’ thing going on. Knowing he’s going to have Bon in tow might be the best way to make sure that Rin waits until he’s got a plan with an exit strategy.” 

A long while later it occurred to Shima that he’d meant to talk to Shiemi about what was bothering her. Still it was cathartic to finally say the things he’d been thinking for so long.

* * *

The infirmary was quiet when Yukio arrived for work. “I haven’t seen Rene in for treatment in… almost a week,” he said to Saul with a frown. “He promised me he wouldn’t try to skip treatments anymore.”

“106,” Saul paused to emphasis his use of Rene’s test subject ID number rather than his name. “Is out of the rotation. I noticed fairly extensive cirrhosis during one of his exams; toxicology data from him is going to be useless if his liver’s failing.”

Yukio felt like someone had punched him in the stomach.

“I really should switch 106 to ballistics testing,” Saul continued. “But maybe it’s best this way. If Lord Egin takes it badly when he dies it there won’t be one person to blame. His death will be the cummulative result of eight years of systematic poisonings by dozens of researchers.” 

“Couldn’t we do a liver transplant?” Yukio asked. “There are fatal injuries every few days. Almost all the test subjects are descended from Echidna; they’re all cousins. Rene’s probably got several half-siblings among the other subjects. There must be a compatible donor available.”

“Why would we?” Saul asked.

“That’s what we do isn’t?” Yukio asked. “The first day here, you told me we save them when we can. We could save Rene.” 

Saul shook his head. “I like 106 more than I should,” he admitted. “I remember Yana bringing him to work when he was just a little squirt. And, despite turning into a demon, he’s still a good kid. Also, selfishly, I’m not looking forward to Lord Egin’s reaction. I’m bound to catch a sizable amount of the fall out as the head of Infirmary. But a liver transplant? I couldn’t bring myself to go that far to extend his suffering.” 

“You’re going to claim you care about the quality of life of your test subjects?” Yukio asked sarcastically. “After you offer to arrange it if I wanted to rape one of ones you keep for breeding?”

“They might as well be blow-up dolls,” Saul said carelessly. “They’re so drugged up it would take a week off the drugs before you’d even be able to measure their brain activity. If we couldn’t keep them under for some reason we’d kill them before we let them wake up.”

“And that justifies rape,” Yukio said with a disgusted look.

“If it keeps the conscious ones from being a temptation,” Saul replied. 

“Or someone wanted to and it was easier for you justify allowing it than to try to stop it,” Yukio sneered. “Just like it’s easier to let your patients scream while you work on them instead of trying to find room in the budget for an anesthesiologist. Just like it’s easier for you to let Rene die than to try to save him.”

Saul set aside what he was working on. “The Facility is rife with abuses, I know that,” he said. “The things we have to do to learn how to fight the demons more efficiently bring out the worst in people. But it’s necessary. You’re too young to remember the Blue Night, we didn’t battle Satan that night. We tried, futilely, to hold the door closed while he pushed his way into this world. We died by the hundreds not because he attacked us, but because we were too weak to even withstand his presence. Assiah exists at the whim of demons. Satan sends his lowest minions to bedevil us and we pat ourselves on the back for defeating them. But the Blue Night showed us that if Satan wanted to destroy humanity all he need do is come into our presence. 

“Yukio, you say you believe in what you’re doing. Well so do I, I’m giving humanity a fighting chance if Satan decides to stop toying with us. It’s not a pretty process and I don’t pretend that what the test subjects are put through is anything less than torture but... ‘You don’t know anything. You don’t see that it is better for you that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed’.

“John 11:50,” Yukio said sardonically. “I suppose it’s better than quoting Spock.”

“I don’t know that I agree with Lord Egin that there is no such thing as a part-demon,” Saul admitted. “But humanity has always been at the mercy of demons. They come to our world to torment us, they treat Assiah as nothing more than a toy for them to play with or break. The Facility is the key to finally upsetting that status quo. For that purpose, I’ll do what I have to. I’m not cruel because I enjoy it, this is how we’ll finally end the threat of Gehenna.” 

“But 106… Rene, he’s been looking for a way to die since he was twelve. Because he hasn’t had a life worth living since the wreck that killed his parents, just an endless treadmill of misery.” Saul sighed, “I should have let the damn peanut butter kill him. His grandfather would have remembered him as human, it would have made him happy. For eight years I’ve kept that boy suffering because I don’t want to tell his Grandfather that we finally killed the last of his family. Selfish of me really; hardly any of them endure this hell for even half as long.”

* * *

_“Selfish of me really.”_

After Saul’s bombshell about Rene Yukio tried to go about his work as normal. He went into his office and found a delivery waiting for him: A box of sturdy steel jars, electropolished to a high sheen. They each came with a heavy stopper of the same material. It was the last item he needed to prepare before removing his kids’ demon hearts so that they could be properly sealed away. It should have been a triumphant moment.

_Selfish to keep Rene alive when he only wanted to die. When there was nothing worth living for in his life._

Yukio had already prepared a special solder to use as sealing ink on the vessels. He heated up a fine tipped soldering iron, then put on safety goggles and delicately drew the improved seals and charms to prevent breakage on the shiny bodies of the jars. After the seals were done he filled each jar with iron nails, broken shards of mirrors, a tangle of blood-red thread and a mixture of anti-demon herbs. Then he carefully cleaned the mouth of each jar, making sure to remove every possible trace of contaminant, before placing the jars in the loadlock of a small, vacuum-environment glovebox. Once inside the vacuum he wiped down the jars and stoppers once more. 

With that done there was only one thing left to be added to the witch jar before their final sealing. 

_Everything I’ve done was ultimately for Rin’s own good. I’m not like the La Llorona, no matter what they say. I have NEVER put my selfish desires over what’s best for Rin, never!_

Once the witch jars were as ready as he could make them in advance Yukio headed down to the cages to decide which of his kids should be first. Rene was already there, trying to coax Meda into a game of pick-up sticks with the twins. “So that’s what’s been happening to the infirmary’s supply of tongue depressors,” Yukio commented as he let himself into the cell.

Rene stuck out his tongue at Yukio. “I tried teaching them duck-duck-goose, but there isn’t really enough room in the cell for that,” he said.

A quick check of the children’s seals showed that Felix’s would need reapplying in a day or so anyway. Yukio decided he’d permanently seal the more docile of the twins first, then if it worked, he’d do Meda on the following day. There were thirteen days left until her birthday and Yukio had come to realize that he could only finish preparing the witch jars in the infirmary. If he failed it would be impossible to hide. ‘Best to keep pretending that Meda’s current seal is holding until I’m sure that I haven’t made any mistakes,’ Yukio thought.

“Um, I gotta talk to you,” Rene said suddenly sounding uncertain.

Yukio nodded. After he finished reading to the children they headed upstairs to the little terrace. 

“Did Saul mention anything? About me getting poisoned a few too many times?” Rene asked quietly.

Yukio nodded. “You could get a liver transplant. Saul said no but I could talk Grandfather into making him do it. I remember what you said about not wanting to have him care about you just because I managed to make you human again, but… But I’m incredibly close. Tomorrow I’m going to try it on Felix. You’d probably have the best chance if you were still demon when the transplant was performed: demon healing, compatibility. So we’d do the transplant, let you recover from that and then I’d do the procedure. Afterwards you’d be human and healthy.”

“You’re really that close?” Rene asked tentatively. “I could leave here, finally?”

Yukio nodded eagerly. 

“I could have my life back,” Rene said, sounding awed. “Who gives a damn about Grandfather? I- Making him understand that I’m still me, it’s been all I’ve had since… since.” He laughed softly. “Wake up in the morning with something to hope for besides maybe dying with a little meaning? Wow, I- I- god, I don’t even know what I’d do with myself.”

Yukio hugged Rene, “I can help you figure it out, cousin.”

_Rows of vials tucked carefully in his chest, everything he needed to put Rin in a comatosed state and hold him there indefinitely. He just had to pick a moment, then he’d never have to worry about Rin rushing headlong into danger and getting himself killed ever again._

At dinner that night, Yukio snagged one of Shura’s beers. The red-head’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Hell froze over,” she remarked.

“I’m celebrating,” Yukio stated. “I’m ready. Tomorrow I’m going to sever Felix’s connection to Gehenna, he’ll be human again. I’ll do the rest of the kids in the next week and Rene as soon as he’s healthy again.”

“Counting your chickens a little early aren’t you?” Shura asked doubtfully. “I’ve never heard of anyone making a demon human.”

Yukio took a deep drink of the beer and shook his head. “Rin was born a demon but Dad made him human for fifteen years. If Rin had just done what he was told and not drawn the sword he’d still be human today.”

Shura looked dubious, “Your brother’s demon-blood was sealed, he looked human, but-” 

“Close enough.” Yukio interrupted. “According to Grandfather Egin if you look human you are human.”

“You do know that your grandfather’s a raving lunatic don’t you?” Shura asked. 

Yukio finished off the first beer and took a second even though his head was already swimming. As he stared down at the chilled can it morphed into an ice pack.

_Yukio was crouched on the bench outside the principal’s office at his old primary school holding the ice pack against the side of his twin’s face. They were nine. The whole right side of Rin’s face was a mess of deep purples and painful redness, his cheek had swelled to the size of a baseball and a thin stream of blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth. Yukio realized that Rin’s teeth must have cut the inside of his cheek._

_The door to the principal’s hadn’t shut properly after Shiro had slammed it and voices carried through the crack. “...and where EXACTLY were you when a boy three years my Rin’s senior took it into his head to attack Rin with a baseball bat?”_

_Yukio shivered, he wondered if their teacher had any idea of how much trouble he was in. Yukio had heard Shiro perform exorcisms using a warmer voice._

_“I have no idea where you found him but that boy is unnatural,” the teacher hissed back. “Twice before he’d beaten up that same twelve-year-old. You can hardly blame the other boy for taking extreme measures to feel safe.”_

_“The other boy lost the last two times he picked a fight with Rin,” Shiro stated coldly. “I can certainly see how that justifies attempted murder. Perhaps next time he’ll go for broke and get a gun because Rin won’t be bullied… or tolerate Yukio being bullied.”_

_“He’s not right!” the teacher insisted. “Everyone who’s ever had to deal with him sees it. A boy three years older, a head taller and twenty kilograms heavier and your ward beats him up. Not just once, three separate times. This time he broke four of the other boy’s ribs!”_

_“Before or after that brat tried to cave in Rin’s skull with a baseball bat?” Shiro demanded._

_“After!” the teacher exclaimed. “Although how that’s even possible… You can’t say he’s a normal child.”_

_“Then you should be grateful!” Shiro snarled. “Because if Rin were normal he’d likely be dead now.”_

_“If he weren’t such a freak it never would have escalated like that!”_

_“Now, now,” the principal interjected. “This isn’t solving anything.”_

_The door at the other end of the hall opened and a gust of wind swept in and blew the principal’s door closed, reducing the voices to an unintelligible murmur._

_Rin grinned then winced as his smile pulled at his injuries. “Dad’s taking my side,” he told Yukio happily._

_“You shouldn’t have started things with Tsukuda last week. You know he never backs down,” Yukio scolded thinking that if he’d made use of some of his Exorcist training he could have easily put the older boy in his place, but would have raised questions. His training was a secret, even- no especially from Rin._

_Rin shrugged. “He shouldn’t have taken your glasses.” Then he smirked. “And he should have known that getting beat up by a third grader three different times costs tons of cool-points.”_

_Yukio frowned. “He hit you in the head with a baseball bat,” he pointed out, just in case Rin had somehow forgotten._

_Rin looked unconcerned. “He’s a big loser and now everyone knows it. Even if I hadn’t kicked his ass again his gang still would have dumped him. What sort of wimp needs a bat to fight a guy three grades younger than him? And I’m not even the tallest in our class.”_

_“No, you’re the fourth shortest, counting the girls,” Yukio replied._

_Rin pouted then winced again. “You didn’t have to put it that way.”_

_“It’s true,” Yukio said turning the ice pack over and pressing it to Rin’s face again. Then he dug a tissue out of his pocket. “You’re dripping on the carpet.”_

_Rin used the tissue to sop up the blood trickling down his chin. “Give me a little credit. I’m swallowing most of the blood instead of spitting it on the floor.”_

_Several minutes later the door opened and Shiro walked out. He gathered Rin and Yukio up, putting a hand on each of the boys’ shoulders. Halfway home he turned off the main street and led them to a quiet park. Shiro sat Rin down on a bench then crouched in front of him. “What would you think about homeschooling?” he asked._

_For a moment Rin’s face went blank then his eyes filled with betrayal. “You tell Yukio to stand up for himself and do what’s right. Why am I different?” he demanded._

_Shiro looked startled._

_“I have more control than to get in pointless fights,” Yukio informed Rin in a superior tone. Shiro hushed him with a glance._

_“You don’t tell Yukio to hide!” Rin protested. “You wouldn’t let him hide when he was scared of stuff. I’m not scared of those assholes at school so why should I let them chase me off?”_

_Shiro studied Rin for a long moment, then his shoulders slumped. He ruffled Rin’s hair. “You can’t hurt any more of your classmates,” he said. “No matter what.”_

_“Fine,” Rin agreed squinting angrily at Shiro through the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut._

_Three days later Rin’s suspension ended. Shiro saw him off to school that morning. As he walked toward the gate along side Rin, Yukio glanced back and saw a look of stark fear on Shiro’s face and suddenly realized that their father knew that by insisting that Rin stop hurting his classmates he’d ensured that Rin himself would be hurt again. But still he let Rin go._

Yukio dropped the beer can. 

‘Hey! Don’t waste that!” Shura protested. 

He walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He stared at the mirror.

_“I am nothing like you! You murdered your children simply to pursue your selfish desires. There is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for Rin!”_

“Liar,” Yukio told his reflection.

_“Selfish of me really.”_

Yukio couldn’t keep denying what had been staring him in the face for months: Putting Rin in coma to keep him safe wasn’t in Rin’s best interest. Everything he’d done, he’d justified by saying that, in the end, it was for Rin’s own good. But it was a lie. 

_“Might as well be blow-up dolls.”_

Keeping Rin safe like a precious china-doll wrapped in cotton and hidden in a chest, wasn’t for Rin. It was Yukio who would have been comforted by knowing that he didn’t have to worry about Rin dying anymore. But Rin, Rin would have had even less of a life than Rene and given the choice Rene would have preferred to have died with his family over the existence he led in the Facility. 

Yukio sat down on the floor and buried his face against his knees and started sobbing. “I’m sorry Rin,” he whispered over and over again.


	13. Communing with Nature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited Yukio's last scene. I wanted him to backslide a bit, but ended up taking him back more than I should have. The scene really just didn't elicit the reaction I was aiming for. Hopefully the new version works better.

Shura poked a wire into the lock on her bathroom door and let herself in. She spent a minute looking over the miserable huddle on the floor that was Yukio then went to the kitchen and came back with a warm, sugar-saturated cup of tea. “Drink this,” she ordered thrusting the cup into Yukio’s hands.

Yukio took an automatic sip then shuddered. “That’s disgusting,” he said. Shura waited. After a few moments he took another sip. Gradually, as he finished the drink, his face regained a little color.

“Ready to move to the couch?” Shura asked.

“I don’t deserve any assistance,” Yukio stated.

Shura grabbed him under the arm and levered him off the floor. “I don’t care,” she said. “I’ve already call in sick for you. You’re staying here today and so am I.” She dumped Yukio on the couch. “Stay,” she ordered. “I started heating some okayu before I broke into the bathroom.

When Shura came back with a steaming dish of rice porridge Yukio tried to protest again. “Eat,” Shura ordered, her tone broke no defiance.

After a few bites Yukio’s eyelids started to droop. “Just a few more bites,” Shura prodded.

“You drugged me,” Yukio accused. He tried to muster the energy to scowl at her.

“The tea,” Shura confirmed. “If you get some food in your stomach you might absorb a bit of it before it hits your bloodstream.”

“Evil,” Yukio muttered shoving a large spoonful into his mouth. “How much do you know?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Shura told him. “Once you’ve slept and your blood sugar’s normal.”

Yukio managed to finish about half the bowl before Shura had to save him from face-planting in the remains. 

She laid him back on the couch and threw a blanket over him. “Probably also good if you get that beer out of your system, scaredy-cat,” she murmured. “I don’t have any problems using alcohol as a truth serum, but as your friend I’d rather this was just you talking.”

* * *

“Welcome to the Pantanal, Ms. Moriyama,” Neuhaus said gruffly as the pickup bumped to a stop.

“I know you want to hurry to Rio, Shiemi” Michelle said. “But you need to release some of Gaia’s power before it overwhelms you.” She gestured to the vast wetlands stretching out before them. “No one should even notice an excess of Earth Energies here.”

Amaimon hopped out of the truck-bed and laughed. “If Egyn tries anything here, the fight will go differently,” he declared as the native energies of the land seeped into him.

Shima snorted. “Take a closer look before you get cocky. This place is as much water as it is land.”

“Even footing,” Amaimon stated. “He’s older, but Earth is strong against Water and I’m just better than that egotistical jerk.”

Neuhaus chuckled at Amaimon claiming that he was better than Egyn and that the other Hell King had an over-sized ego in the same breath.

Michelle offered Shiemi her hand. “Come, let your connection to the Earth flow freely. You won’t do any harm here. I know you must be exhausted from holding back Gaia’s power for so long.”

Tentatively Shiemi took Michelle’s hand and let the older woman help her to the ground. The grass around Shiemi’s feet became greener and more lush but the landscape was otherwise unchanged. Shiemi felt the immense reserves of Earth Energy stirring beneath her like a sleeping dragon. She could feel Gaia’s power blending seamlessly with the energy native to the marshes.

Sheimi took a few careful steps away from the truck then curled her toes in the rich loam. She giggled and spun around then dashed across the clearing, reveling in her freedom.

“Now let go,” Michelle instructed. “You’re still holding back.”

Shiemi stopped and turned back to them. She nodded and let her eyes fall closed. As she breathed out a pulse of power spread from her to the land. As before the plant-life around her became more vibrate. This time the effect was visible for meters around Shiemi.

With each exhalation the pulses grew stronger and traveled further. When Sheimi inhaled the energy of the land swept into her. After a few minutes Shima saw distant flock of birds take flight as the pulse passed over them.

Amaimon and Michelle’s eyes fell closed as well. They turned toward Shiemi like flowers turning toward the sun. “Better than candy,” Amaimon murmured.

“Help me set up camp,” Neuhaus ordered.

Shima started to reach for Amaimon, planning to demand that the demon do his share of the work.

Neuhaus stopped him. “No point when they’re communing with nature that deeply.”

“So does that mean we can kick back while they pack-up tomorrow morning?” Shima asked.

“If you want to try bossing a Hell King around, be my guest,” Neuhaus replied

Shima smirked. “I’ll get Shiemi-chan to do the bossing,” he said.

As the sun began to sink behind the mountains Michelle shook off the trance she’d fallen into to. “Better?” she asked Shiemi.

Shiemi blinked then nodded. “I don’t feel like a water balloon about to burst anymore.”

“Even given your compatibility Gaia’s power is too much to contain in a human body,” Michelle said. “The Earth itself is one of Gaia’s aspects. Trying to break that connection is like trying to hold back the tide… But she’s a little hard on cities.”

That surprised a burst of laughter from Shiemi.

“My day of rest starts with sunset,” Michelle said changing the subject. “I need to get positioned or we won’t be able to move again until the next sunset.” She turned back and climbed into the truck, then carefully belted herself in. Neuhaus followed after her and double checked that she was secured.

Michelle neatly arranged her limbs, bracing her legs against the floorboards and crossing her arms over her chest then she tucked her chin down. Neuhaus crouched on the running board and leaned in to kiss her forehead as the last ray of light vanished. “Goodnight sweetheart,” he said quietly. The color vanished from Michelle’s features leaving her hair and skin a uniform grey. Her flesh transformed to unyielding clay. Neuhaus tucked a blanket around her, then walked back to the others. “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said.

Shima glanced back Michelle. “You’re okay with that?” he asked Neuhaus. “I kinda thought you hated demons.” 

“I hate Satan,” Neuhaus corrected. “But I’m not so stubborn that I can’t learn. Hating Satan’s son was a mistake. And I could never hate Michelle, no matter what form she takes. It hurt to see her as a Revenant; my gently Michelle, consumed by vengeance. This? The housing for her soul has changed but Michelle hasn’t. This is a gift.”

* * *

Once they’d eaten Shiemi wandered back out toward the edge of camp.

“Careful,” Neuhaus cautioned her. “Not all the ground’s solid out there.”

“I’ll be okay Sensei,” Shiemi assured him. Even as she said it she realized just how true it was. Even if there’d been no moon or stars, in pitch blackness she knew she’d never misstep. She could sense the Earth beneath her feet and stepping on solid ground would be as instinctual as clasping her own two hands together. If she wanted to walk across the swampy areas she could summon plants and earth to bare her weight, all she had to do was wish it.

She smiled and waved off their concern, then wandered out into the night letting her awareness of the land lead her through the marsh.

Shiemi had known since she was a small child that she and her grandmother shared a connection with plants that her mother lacked. She remembered being five years old and trying to explain to her mother how the Glechoma in her office wasn’t happy. Her mother had brushed her off as a silly, over-imaginative child with too few real friends. Later that day Shiemi’s grandmother had pulled her aside and explained that normal people didn’t hear the flowers’ songs. Her grandmother explained that with normal people one talked about soil conditions, water requirements and sun exposure, you didn’t tell them what the trees whispered or about an unhappy turn of leaf on a shrub. With normal people you had to call the plants by the names humans assigned them rather than by the names they introduced themselves by.

Since inviting Gaia in, Shiemi found her sensitivity increased a hundredfold. She could hear the murmured dreams of the seeds lying dormant in the ground. And they heard her too, they heard her, woke and rushed to bask in the vital power pouring off her.

Once the Earth itself, not this earth but an earlier one, had been her body. “Gaia’s not mine,” Shiemi whispered. The soil her flesh, the rocks her bones, the magma her life’s blood. But the small beings of this new Assiah had wrapped the Earth in vast bands of asphalt and concrete like a straight-jacket confining her. She wanted to reach out and shake this new incarnation of her body free of it’s bindings. 

“No, you can’t do that!” the small being she’d cloaked herself in protested. “I won’t do that,” Shiemi’s voice became stronger. “People would be hurt if I let you do that.”

Shiemi felt the vast consciousness that was Gaia begin to overwhelm her again, swamp her in Gaia’s awareness of the planet as an extension of herself.

“I am the tender of the garden, not the garden,” Shiemi murmured remembering her Grandmother’s teachings. “I am Moriyama Shiemi, granddaughter of Moriyama Misaki, daughter of Moriyama Takara. Friend and classmate of Okumura Rin, Paku Noriko, Kamiki Izumo, Suguro Ryuji and Miwa Konekomaru. Student of Mephisto Pheles, Shima Tsuzo and Father Nagatomo. Partner to Shima Renzo, Tamer to his Aria as he is Knight to my Doctor.” Shiemi stumbled for a moment, her cheeks coloring at the thought of naming herself Amaimon’s wife and she changed what she’d intended to say. “Priestess to Amaimon, King of Earth. I am the tender of the garden, the listener of flower songs. I am not the garden.” Shiemi remembered some of what Mephisto had told them in their class and decided, in addition to re-establishing boundaries by naming herself, to restate the terms of the deal. “I am Moriyama Shiemi, who allows Gaia the use of her body to rescue Gaia’s precious daughter Echidna. I am NOT Gaia.”

Shiemi dropped to her knees, panting as if she’d just ran a marathon, but she felt Gaia’s consciousness retreat. “I’m Shiemi,” she repeated on last time. Then slowly she picked herself up and started walking back to the camp. 

Through her connection to the Earth she felt Amaimon stir, felt the wordless inquiry he sent her way.

//I’m okay,// Shiemi thought back. //I think Gaia and I are back in balance, at least for the moment.//

//Good.// Amaimon replied.

* * *

The next morning Shiemi woke up to find a dragon curled up in front of their fire-pit. She glanced back inside the tent and saw Amaimon standing up. “Think I kept her waiting long enough?” he muttered as he slipped past Shiemi. 

The dragon bowed her head slightly to Amaimon, then more deeply to Shiemi. “Earth Lord, Most Honored Elder Sister, your presence in the lands of my creation is welcomed.” 

“This place is beautiful,” Shiemi said impulsively.

“More beautiful for your replenishment,” the dragon replied, her green scales gleaming in the early morning sun. 

“Pachamama,” Amaimon greeted the dragon. Shiemi noticed the wary caution between the two of them. 

“You follow your mother’s path now, my lord?” the dragon asked.

Amaimon nodded. Pachamama smiled, her wings relaxed. 

“We’re here to deal with the Rio branch of the Order. They’ve gotten out of hand, I’ve no quarrel with how you manage your fief,” Amaimon clarified. 

Pachamama sat back on her haunches. “Lord Samuel needs to keep a better hold of his playthings,” she said with fastidious disdain. “They’re becoming dangerous.”

Amaimon shrugged. “Big Brother likes dangerous minions. Even cannon fodder needs to be able to do some damage.” 

“At least with Lord Lucifer’s toys you know they’re acting at his direction.” Pachamama replied tartly.

“I’ve met some of Lucifer’s pets before,” Amaimon said, wrinkling his nose. “The way they fawn over him would make Samuel-ni vomit.”

“Samuel acts like his humans are Gehennan,” Pachamama sounded highly disapproving. 

“He might be right,” Amaimon replied. He gave Shiemi a proud look. “My priestess decided when Mother had punished Egyn enough. A toy could not stand firm against Gaia.”

“As you say, my lord,” Pachamama said. She spread her wings. “Fare thee well in your endeavors.”

Shiemi watched her fly away. “Gehennans don’t think much of us do they?” she said remembering how Egyn had referred to her as merely a vessel for Gaia.

Amaimon shrugged. “Big brother does and Mother’s at least curious about you.”

“What about you?” Shiemi asked.

Amaimon gave her his toothily, ill-practiced smile. “You’re my priestess. I’m not sure about other humans, but you are no one’s toy.” 

“Thank you,” Shiemi said quietly.

Amaimon frowned at the ground for a moment, then he said. “But you have to be careful about opposing Mother. Right now, the way she’s merging with you, it’s like Big Brother prefers to merge with his hosts. You’ll live out your life, sharing your body with Mother, showing her the world through your eyes. And when your life is done, you’ll become one with her soul. You will be a part of her, forever. But she could possess you instead. Suppress your soul and take your body for herself. You don’t want her to choose that.”

“What if I just want to be me?” Sheimi asked. “Will Gaia leave once Echidna’s been rescued if I ask her to?”

Amaimon had no answer.

* * *

Yukio groaned lethargically. His body was telling him to just roll over and go back to sleep but a nagging in the back of his head made him resist the temptation. He squinted and groped for his glasses then realized he was sleeping on Shura’s couch.

“She drugged me,” Yukio muttered disbelievingly. He grabbed his phone then held it close to his face. “Damnit!” he exclaimed when he saw the date. “Shura! Where did you hide my glasses!” he shouted.

Shura stumbled out of her bedroom, yawning. “It’s too early to be waking up,” she complained. Then stretched up to retrieve Yukio’s glasses from the top of her bookshelf.

Yukio snatched them out of her hand. “I’ve got ten days left to make the kids human before they kill Meda. Because of you I’ve lost a whole day!” he exclaimed. “I won’t even be able to start the procedure on Felix until after Saul goes home tonight. If all else fails I can’t let him know that the inked seal are removable.”

Shura’s expression sharpened. “If you can’t start until tonight anyway then you’ve got plenty of time to talk.” 

“What’s there to talk about?” Yukio demanded. “I fucked up. I know that.”

Shura let Yukio rant.

“Do you want me to say that all the time I told myself I was only doing what I had to to protect Rin I was just torturing him? Consider it said! I can’t keep Rin alive by taking away his life and say it’s for his benefit. I realize that now.”

“But this time I’m right. I’m going to make him human again. I’m going to do what Dad and Mephisto Pheles should have done in the first place. I’m going to seal away the demon in Rin, in all of them, so it can’t ever get out.” Yukio’s shoulders slumped. He dropped back on the couch. “Then if he still want to be an exorcist so be it. I’ll get out of his way. It’s Rin’s choice what he wants to do with his life, even if it gets him killed.”

“Maybe having a demon’s powers could help him do what he wants,” Shura suggested. “Isn’t that his choice too?”

Yukio shook his head. “I’m right. Rene and the kids? As humans they can have a life, as demons they can’t, it’s that simple. If I can’t make them human the Facility will start torturing them to death as soon as they turn six. If we find enough evidence to call in the Grigori and shut this place down, chances are they’ll put all the test subjects down. Maybe they’ll be humane about it but the kids will still be dead. The test subjects can’t make a deal like Rin’s. Most of them are feral. They can’t even talk to try to convince the Order that they’re more than monsters to be destroyed. And there are so many of them. Maybe we could find a few people like Dad who’d see them, at least the youngest ones, as kids instead of monsters, but there are nearly a thousand test subjects in the Facility. Some of them are in their teens and they’ve been abused their whole lives, if they don’t hate humans…” Yukio shook his head. “They should hate us after what they’ve been through. No one’s going to be willing to go to the effort it would take to fix them while they remain demons, but if they were human it would be different.” 

Then he bit his lip and closed his eyes for a moment. “As for Rin… Mephisto’s got the Grigori looking at Rin as a potential weapon to use against Satan as well as a potential threat. He couldn’t make them see Rin as a person. As long as Rin’s a demon, that’s always going to be hanging over his head. He’s a demon, the son of Satan, wherever he goes people are going to want him dead because of that fact. The only reason the Grigori is holding off is because they want to use him before they kill him. Everyone thinks they can use Rin’s powers for their own ends… He inherited those powers from Satan, nothing good can come from them.” 

“If Rin wants to stay a demon and use his powers against Satan, he’s an idiot or being influenced by the blue flames to think that way. I won’t let him throw away his humanity like that.” Yukio declared. “Rin was supposed to stay human. I refuse to accept anything else.... If we’re done here, I have classes and a missed day of work to make-up for thanks to you.”


	14. A Demon's Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up rewriting Yukio’s last scene in the previous chapter. I was going for two steps forward, one step back, but from the reviews it came off a lot harsher than I was aiming for. In the rewrite I’ve tried to make sure Yukio’s good intentions are more strongly emphasized… although he’s still got issues with believing that he is, by far, the most qualified to judge what is in Rin’s best interest.

As the Neuhaus’ truck rumbled up to a stoplight in the outskirts of San Paulo a spectral figured waved them to a stop.

“Great Mother,” the La Llorona said as she climbed into the truck bed and prostrated herself before Shiemi.

“Hi,” Shimei replied awkwardly. “Um, do you have any new information about where Echidna is being held?”

“We have seen the place where they discard the bodies of the Great Mother’s grandchildren and great grandchildren,” the La Llorona reported pressing her forehead to the floor-boards of the truck bed . “But we were not able to enter the True Cross’ stronghold. Their wards would have alerted them. Honored Echidna and her sleeping daughters are within, but we do not know where... We haven’t been idle! We have secured allies: An enemy of the one called Egin who rules this stronghold; although she is of the True Cross herself she ached for the murdered children. And her agent within the Stronghold; he has a La Llorona’s heart.”

“A La Llorona’s heart?” Shiemi questioned.

“He ripped away a life that was entrusted to him to protect. He yet lies to himself about what he has done but such lies cannot last.” The ghostly woman finally raised her head, tears streamed down her face. “We La Llorona know; eventually the lie fails and you must face the truth.” 

“A six hundred years ago I must have had a reason, I must have believed I was justified but all I remember is my baby’s face as I threw her in the river. Too late, much too late, I saw myself true. I waded out into the river calling for my baby to forgive me.” The La Llorona crawled forward and wrapped her icy hands around Shiemi’s ankles. “Please, please Great Mother, release us from this world. There is no atonement, no redemption, there is only the creeping madness of endlessly wailing our remorse to a deaf god.”

Shiemi stared down at the wretched creature before her, appalled by her crime but still forced to wonder when enough was enough. Did endless punishment with no avenue for correction or learning serve any purpose besides satisfying a need for vengeance? And if revenge was the only purpose, at what point did the punisher become no better than the punished? But their poor murdered babies, how could anyone ever make up for such a crime? 

Shiemi felt Gaia stirring and for a moment she welcomed the Elder God’s intervention, welcomed that she didn’t have to pass judgement. Gaia reached out and ran her fingers through the La Llorona’s hair. “Your chance for redemption and my granddaughters’ salvation is one in the same.” But Shiemi found that she couldn’t ignore that she hadn’t liked what she’d seen of Gaia’s justice in the past. “Tell me about yourself,” Shiemi asked the La Llorona, nudging Gaia back again. “What was your name?” she asked as they began the last leg of their journey.

* * *

At the Facility Yukio waited until Saul had retired for the night then brought Felix up from the cells and strapped the little boy down on one of the Infirmary’s beds. Felix whined and squirmed unhappily against the restraints. Yukio smiled reassuringly. “I know it’s been a while since you’ve been up here,” he said. “And even longer since I’ve restrained you, but this is delicate. If you wiggle at the wrong time I might hurt you.” 

First Yukio set a pungent smelling wash on the table beside the Felix’s bed and thoroughly removed every trace of the boy’s previous seal. Felix wrinkled his nose then sighed in relief as his body reverted to the felinoid form he’d been born into. Felix’s ears perked up and he gave Yukio a grateful look, clearly happy to be back in his natural state. 

Yukio shook his head. “That’s just the first step,” he warned. “I don’t know how the old seal would interact with the permanent one and I don’t want to take any chances of messing this up.” He glanced at the glovebox one last time to make certain that the witch bottle was standing ready, then he picked up a long, thick needle.

Felix whined in terror as he watched the needle approach his chest. “No! No! No!” he protested.

Yukio put the needle down and spent a few moments patting the child’s shoulder reassuringly. “I know it looks scary,” he said. “But after I’m finished you’ll be human. I won’t have to refresh your seal ever again and then you’ll be able to leave. We’ll find you and Leo a nice family to stay with. I promise I’ll find someone who’ll take both of you. I know how horrible it is be to be separated from your twin. That won’t happen to you and Leo, I promise. Everything will be better soon. You just have to be brave for me for five minutes okay?”

Slowly, warily, Felix nodded.

Yukio picked up the needle again. He listened to Felix’s heart with his stethoscope for several minutes. Then, in one smooth forceful movement he pushed the needle between Felix’s ribs into the left ventricle of the boy’s heart. Yukio carefully pulled back the plunger, gathering a small sample of Felix’s heart’s blood. After withdrawing the needle, Yukio monitored Felix’s heartbeat for a few more moments to make sure it remained steady while he chanted an ancient Babylonian incantation to ward off evil spirits. 

Still chanting, Yukio put the blood sample into the glovebox and cycled the loadlock while he slid his hands into the gloves. He quickly maneuvered the needle over the prepared witch bottle in the glovebox’s rarified atmosphere then, making sure not to allow even a drop of blood to splash on the mouth of the jar, he emptied the sample into it and picked up the stopper. 

Yukio switched to a second chant as he inserted the stopper and twisted it slowly into the mouth of the jar until the highly polished metal surfaces fused into one seamless whole. As the weld set the seals Yukio had soldered onto exterior of the witch bottle glowed gold for a moment then assumed a deep carmine color as the spell took hold. 

For a moment Yukio let himself sag in exhaustion from the demands of completing the exacting mixture of science and magic he’d developed to transplant a demon-heart without a the aid of a major demon like Mephisto. Then he turned to Felix hopefully. As he watched Felix’s fur started shedding in large clumps, his tail shrank back into his tailbone and his features rearranged themselves into a human face, even his eyes which had always, stubbornly stayed slit-pupiled and inhumanly gold, turned to an unremarkable hazel.

Yukio tilted his face up to the heavens and laughed joyously. Impulsively he released Felix’s restraints, picked the little boy up and held him in front of a mirror. “Look, you’re human.”

Felix stared listlessly at the unfamiliar eyes in the mirror.

Within the hour Felix’s vital signs began to drop. By ten that night Yukio put him on a respirator while he searched frantically for a way to break the seal. Three hours later, in despair, Yukio put the witch bottle on the floor of the infirmary, drew his gun and shot it over and over again. He didn’t even stop when a ricochet creased his thigh, but the bottle withstood everything Yukio threw at it, just like he’d designed it to. 

The next morning Saul found Yukio struggling to rig life-support equipment as Felix’s organs shut down one after another. “Call it and collect your data,” he ordered.

Yukio stared at his supervisor with blank incomprehension.

“This is an experiment, not a patient,” Saul explained kindly. “We’ve gotten all the value possible out of this subject. Even if you keep him alive he’s no good for further experimentation. So call it, do an autopsy and move on to your next subject.”

“But he’s human now, I made him human,” Yukio protested. “You have to care about him now, he’s human.”

“You completely sealed his demon-heart,” Saul corrected. “He’s not human, he’s a demon who has been severed from his heart. Nothing can live without a heart. He’s a demon corpse that hasn’t quite fallen down yet. That’s all.”

“No,” Yukio decided. He turned back to Felix and continued trying to stabilize him. 

Saul grabbed Yukio’s shoulder and tried to pull him away. 

In a heartbeat Yukio twisted out of his grasp and threw the older man across the room. As he drew his gun Yukio remembered that it was empty. He ejected the cartridge and reloaded before Saul had even begun to right himself. “Felix is a child,” Yukio declared. “Try to stop me from saving him again and I’ll shoot you.”

Saul slowly pulled himself to his feet and backed out of the room, hands held up in surrender.

* * *

In the cages below Leo screamed in anguish. The seal on his stomach disintegrated restoring him to his full demon form. He shook the door, then started forcing himself through the bars. He took off skin and hair on either side of his skull, his rib cage caught but he forced himself through. For a moment he lay on the ground outside the cage panting as his broken ribs and almost scalped skull healed. 

At the end of the hall the door opened to allow Rene in. Leo was up and running, his slipped past the older boy and shocked guard before they realized he was out of his cage. 

Rene gave chase as Leo threw himself up the stairwell, “I’ll get him!” He shouted putting himself between Leo and the guard. The spot between Rene’s shoulders itched, he wondered how long it would be before the guard opened fire on them both. But then the stairwell door slammed shut and there was something else between them and the guard. 

The facility alarms went off. Leo didn’t seem to hear. He pressed on with a driving, single-minded intensity. 

Rene tried to make use of his longer legs but still couldn’t seem to close the gap between them. A door opened between Rene and Leo, a second guard started to step into the stairwell. Rene slammed his full weight into the door, knocking the guard back into the hallway. “Sorry!” he shouted as he picked himself up and continued chasing after Leo. If he could just get Leo under control before the guards caught up with them... 

Leo reached the twelfth floor and started toward the Infirmary. The boy was in and among the startled guards so quickly they didn’t have a chance to fire. 

“Yukio, hell,” Rene muttered finding new reserves as he realized where the berserk child was headed. He shoved through the hall and got to the Infirmary door only two steps behind Leo. 

Yukio was standing over Felix, prepping a defibrillator in last ditch effort to force the little boy’s physical heart to keep beating even though his demon-heart was beyond reach. Yukio turned as Leo burst into the room. For a moment Yukio and Rene’s eyes met across the room. Yukio’s were full of guilt and despair, his hands fell to his sides as Leo shrieked in rage and leapt at him. 

Rene lunged and grabbed the smaller boy out of the air. They crashed to the ground together. Leo struggling and screaming to get at Yukio. Then the guards were in the Infirmary. Rene jerked as multiple bullets struck him. 

To Yukio the gunfire sounded distant, unreal, even though he knew it should have been deafening in the enclosed room. Standing only a few feet from Rene and Leo, their blood splattered across him, it felt like lava on his skin. Yukio dropped to his knees, his eyes locked on Rene’s mouth. He could see his cousin whispering to Leo. “It’s okay. It’ll be over soon. It’s okay.”

The guards pulled Leo away from Rene and fired on the younger demon one last time. Leo’s skull flew apart as they ended any possibility that he could be a threat. 

Yukio grabbed Rene and hugged him close, afraid that they’d execute his cousin next. He ignored the blood pouring out of Rene’s body. 

For a moment Rene’s eyes remained on Leo, then he looked toward Yukio and somehow summoned up a smile. “It’s okay,” he whispered to Yukio. “Pretty cool way to die huh? Saving my baby cousin. Way better than liver failure.”

Yukio shook his head, he shoved up his glasses and rubbed at the tears blurring his vision but only managed to smear blood across his face. 

The guards kept their guns trained on Rene but didn’t fire again. After few moments his body went limp. Yukio carefully lowered him to the floor and closed his eye. Then he stood up, went back to Felix and shut off the respirator. 

One of the guards approached Yukio. “You alright?” he asked gruffly.

//Don’t look up,// a voice in Yukio’s head ordered. //Don’t let them see your eyes.//

“None of the blood is mine.” Yukio said after a few moments. He needed away, if any of them came after him he wasn’t quite sure what he’d do. He started toward the hallway, stumbling unsteadily. One of the guards reached out to offer him a stabilizing hand. “Don’t touch me!” Yukio shouted, his hand twitching toward his gun. 

“Easy,” the guard held up his hands and backed away. He followed Yukio down the hall to the elevator. “You can’t go out on the campus looking like that.” 

Yukio pressed the button then stared at the red smear left behind on the panel. He looked down at the floor and saw blood pooling around his feet and thicker substances clumped on his clothes. 

‘Leo’s brains,’ his thoughts supplied helpfully and Yukio gagged. He turned and ran for the nearest shower, struggling out of his cloths and turned the water all the way to hot. The stinging water beat down on his head, Yukio stared emptily at the red-tinged water swirling down the drain. 

Rene was dead. 

Leo was dead. 

Taking away what made Felix a demon hadn’t turned him human, it only killed him. 

Rene died protecting him, shot by the Facility’s guards. Rene was dying anyway, poisoned over and over again until his body finally started giving out. 

Leo died trying to avenge his twin; trying to kill Yukio.

He’d killed Felix. He was going to save them all, save them from being demons. He’d killed Felix. Felix wasn’t a human who needed saving from the demon possessing him, he was a demon. Rin was a demon, Rene was a demon, Indigo, Meda, Leo, Kit, Kermit, they were all demons. They didn’t need saved from being demons, then needed saved from the humans who were hurting them. Humans like him. 

He hadn’t been protecting Rin. Mephisto had exiled him from Japan because it was necessary, because he wasn’t protecting Rin, he was what Rin needed to be protected from.

Yukio heard Rene’s voice echoing in his head, “It’s okay. It’ll be over soon. It’s okay.” He knew what he had to do.

* * *

“This is it?” Neuhaus asked the La Llorona before ringing the bell outside a tidy apartment building in Rio’s Botafogo district. 

A moment later the door was thrown open and a red-head in short-shorts and a string bikini jerked Amaimon inside. “Don’t you people have any sense of discretion?” the woman demanded as she harried them upstairs to her apartment.

Shiemi, being carried piggy-back by Shima as usual leaned close to his ear and whispered. “You should stop drooling now.”

“Aww, Shiemi-chan knows I only have eyes for her,” Shima replied. Once they reached the second floor-landing he let Shiemi slide to the floor but kept a hand on her arm until he was sure she was steady on her feet.

“I’m going to lose all the muscle in my legs again,” Shiemi sighed to herself.

Shura ushered them inside her apartment then turned and glared at them. “So? What do a wanted criminal, a Hell King, a dead woman and a couple of kids want with me?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

Shiemi nodded to the La Llorona. “Maria says you’re a friend.”

Shura’s eyes widened. “So the little girl’s calling the shots? Interesting company you’re keeping these days Neuhaus.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yukio sealed the witch jar using a technique called cold welding. If you bring two clean, smooth metal surfaces of the similar metals together under a vacuum the atoms of the two metals don’t “know” which piece of metal they belong to and the atomic structure of the two pieces will fuse.


	15. It has to End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder: Back in “To Be Good” one of the ways I went AU was that Shura never showed up at the Academy. So she’s never met Rin or any of the other Exwires.

The apartment door burst open and Yukio stormed inside. It took a moment for Shiemi to recognize him; He was a far cry from the always composed, youngest person to ever make Exorcist that Shiemi had known in Tokyo. Yukio was wearing medical scrubs, his hair was damp and uncombed and his shoes squelched wetly as he stepped into Shura’s entry way. He didn’t even glance at them before he started talking. “Shura, do you have access to nitroglycerine? Forget collecting evidence and waiting for the Grigori to take action against Egin. I’m blowing the place up. If I time the explosion for the shift change between days and swing I’ll kill about 80% of the Facility staff. I’ll call Egin, make sure he’s onsite. I will personally make sure he dies; that will solve most of the problem. I’m almost positive I can take out the whole facility without bringing down the statue too, but you’d better clear off the tourists first in case I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong too often lately.”

Shura cleared her throat loudly and pointed to her guests. “Look company,” she said blandly. “And they speak Japanese, so have fun explaining. Lucky for you, they’re looking to bring down the Facility too.” 

Yukio blinked. He turned and looked at the six of them and Shiemi felt like she knew him less than ever. Looking into Yukio’s eyes was like looking through a thin crust of ice to see a caged blaze raging beneath. Shiemi found herself remembering the Exwire Training Camp and Rin going berserk as he fought Amaimon. She felt Gaia stirring in her veins but she stood her ground against the both inexorable power raising within her and the relentless destructive force she sensed just below the surface in Yukio. She raised her chin and faced Yukio squarely. “What were you planning on doing with Echidna and her daughters?” she demanded.

“They can’t be saved,” Yukio replied, his eyes went flat and empty. “The best I can do is end their suffering.” 

“We’re going to save them,” Shiemi informed him. 

Yukio glanced past her to the Neuhauses, Shima, Amaimon and the La Llorona. He shook his head. “It won’t work. I could get a small group past the Facility’s guards, but what are you going to do then? How are the six of you going to get roughly 200 infants, 600 feral children and 150 comatosed and pregnant girls out of the Facility without getting caught? It would take an army to rescue them. 

“If you had an army you’d have to fight your way in; a pitched battle on the Facility’s terms. And if started looking like you might win such a battle? They’d kill the subjects and run, taking Echidna with them. It might take years for them to rebuild but they would,” Yukio continued in a dead voice.

This time Shiemi let Gaia rise; she felt the slight burn that she’d begun to recognize as a sign that her eyes were glowing. “They don’t need an army,” Gaia stated. “Not when I walk with them. Your role will be to awaken the sleepers.” 

Yukio’s jaw dropped.

“Meet the La Llorona’s ‘She’,” Shura said. “Otherwise known as Gaia, or Echidna’s mother. Then there’s her host, Moriyama Shiemi and her entourage: The Earth King, Amaimon. Former upper first class exorcist Igor Neuhaus. His wife Michelle, also formerly an upper first class exorcist, currently a golem. And Renzo Shima, Knight-trainee.”

“We already know Okumura here,” Shima remarked. “We’re friends with the brother he practically murdered.”

Yukio recollected himself, he ignored Shima and addressed Gaia. “The girls have been under since they were small children, now they’re adults and most of them are pregnant on top of that. Their bodies will be completely different than what they remember. At best they’ll be confused, panicky. Chances are they were feral before they were put under. Wild animals are better raised than the children in the Facility. Most of them don’t speak. They won’t understand that you’re trying to help because in their experience there is no such thing as help. You can’t expect any sort orderly escape.”

“I do not hide or run,” Gaia stated. “There will be no escape, this ‘Facility’, where my children have been abused, will be consumed.” She extended a hand and the La Llorona knelt at her side. “As for the girls, Maria and her sisters will merge with my sleeping granddaughters. The La Llorona will provide them with an adult’s experience so that they may function.” 

“You do know how La Llorona come into being don’t you?” Yukio asked rhetorically. “Do you really think it’s a good plan to just give them the body of a pregnant girl?”

The La Llorona looked up from her place at Shiemi’s side. “Even the youngest of those of us gathered here has suffered decades for her crimes. Do you not believe in second chances? In redemption?”

“No,” Yukio answered shortly.

“Then I pity you.”

“Enough,” Gaia stated. “It will be as I have decreed. In merging with my granddaughters, the La Llorona will be changed. And they will not be left to their own devices. As you say there are some 800 other children that will need caring for afterwards. I have decided that I will remain on Assiah; the girls and Echidna will care for the children they have created under my protection and guidance.”

Amaimon and Shima traded a worried look at that declaration. 

Shura shrugged, “It might not be a great plan, sort of scarce on details.” She turned to Yukio, “But ya gotta admit it’s an improvement over ‘kill everyone’.”

The glow disappeared from Shiemi’s eyes, she staggered briefly. Shima and Amaimon leapt to catch her elbows. “Shiemi-chan?” Shima asked, “Did you hear?” 

Shiemi nodded, she looked scared. “I can’t say no,” she said. “A-all those children.”

Shima caught her shoulders. “Don’t you start thinking like that,” he hissed, giving her a light shake. “You absolutely can say no. It’s your life, you have right to it. Other people can’t just come along and say they need it more. We’ll figure out a different way.” 

“First we get the kids out, alive,” Shura said. “Then we’ll figure out what to do with them.”

“I can neutralize the sedatives,” Yukio said after a few moments. “From what I’ve been told we’ll need to wait for better than a week for them to regain conscious.”

“Then we wait,” Shiemi replied.

Yukio nodded. “I’ll set it in motion as soon as I report for my shift tomorrow.”

“Okay, so it’s settled,” Shura decided. She walked past Yukio and opened her door pointedly. “Let’s all go home and think about where we can hide nearly a thousand part-demon escapees. Okay?” 

As the group from Japan filed past him, Yukio reached out to Shiemi, she flinched away. Shima stepped between them without a hint of subtlety about what he was doing. “How is Rin?” Yukio asked, letting his hand fall to his side.

“You got a hell of a lot of nerve asking that Okumura,” Shima snapped. 

Shiemi squeezed Shima’s arm then stepped out from behind him. When she met Yukio’s eyes, the utter lack of warmth in her expression stunned him. “You hurt Rin in a way no one else could have,” she said. “It was only because of how much he loved you that he let you do that to him. And even after everything you did, Rin still misses you, even now you’re still causing him misery.” She took a deep breath then twisted the knife. “But he’s doing much better without you.”

Yukio looked away, “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I guess that was the idea wasn’t it?” 

Shiemi’s expression softened minutely but she meant what she’d said and wouldn’t take it back. She turned and left.

Yukio stood at the window and watched until he saw them leave the building then he turned to Shura. “If you can’t get nitroglycerine, I could make do with dynamite.”

“What the hell happened today?” Shura demanded.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let them try to get the test subjects out.” Yukio said without acknowledging Shura’s question. “It will take time mine the Facility in any case. Because whether they succeed or fail, I’m ending that abattoir.”

“So I take it your test yesterday didn’t go so well.”

“It worked perfectly,” Yukio replied bitterly. “I completely severed Felix from his demon-heart. I just failed to predict one of the side-effects: Death. It never occurred to me that Mephisto Pheles might have had a reason for not sealing Rin’s heart more completely.” He grimaced, “A reason beyond wanting to use Rin as his weapon I mean.”

“Saul knew!” he exploded. “He knew if I ever succeeded I’d kill my test subject. He knew and he never said anything! He just stood there and let me kill Felix. They all knew. The Facility has to end.”

“You’re serious about timing it to cause the most casualties?” Shura asked tentatively. “They’re human you know.”

Yukio shook his head. “The Facility’s full of demons and monsters and between the two I like the demons better.” He gave her a sketchy smile. “I think I’m starting to understand my mother. The Facility has to end. Everyone there is already destroyed, killing them is just… making it official.”

“It’s still pretty bloody minded,” Shura said quietly. 

Yukio ripped opened his bag and dug out the clothes he’d been wearing the night before. They splattered red droplets across the room when he threw them on the coffee table. “If so, it’s thoroughly justified.”

* * *

Shima quietly let himself out of the hotel room they’d rented for the night. He leaned against the dingy wall of the poorly lit hallway, pulled out his phone and after a brief hesitation he switched it on and dialed a number. 

Then he held the phone away from his ear and was not even slightly surprised when the other person answered by screaming, “Renzo! Where are you, you idiot monkey-boy!”

“And hello to you too, Nishiki,” Shima replied. “I ran away to Rio with a cute girl.”

“This isn’t a joke!” Hojo Nishiki exclaimed. “Your family’s more than half convinced that you’re dead!”

“You mean they hope I’m dead.” 

“And you had your phone off this whole time! You really are a complete bastard sometimes Renzo.”

“Well, I am in Rio and there is a cute girl involved… But seriously, we’re going after a rogue branch of the Order, fucked-up even by the Order’s standard,” Shima said. “We’re about to rescue nearly a thousand abused, part-demon kids. The kids are all descended from Echidna and I was thinking, the Gorgons are also her daughters. Which means these kids are related to your Nagi…”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll start circulating the news, see how many of your kids we can place,” Nishiki replied. “I’ve got some Nagi-Tamer friends in Cambodia. I’ll spread the word to them too and they’ll have contacts of their own.”

“Thanks,” Shima said. “This is important. The cute girl I mentioned, she’s gonna do something desperate if we can’t get those kids taken care of.” 

“You jerk, you really did run off to Rio to impress some girl!” Nishiki exclaimed.

“Don’t forget that she’s a _cute_ girl,” Shima replied. “But seriously, I saw a chance to maybe re-evaluate some things and I took it.”

“In the process you missed all the excitement,” Nishiki said. “Kyoto nearly got wiped-out, Bon’s functionally the High Priest now and strangest of all, Mamushi is marrying Juuzo.”

“Seriously?” Shima exclaimed, jerking upright. “All that sniping since forever, it was all just UST?” 

“I hope so,” Nishiki said. “Mamushi might be a goody-two-shoes pris, but she’s still my sister. I really hope he didn’t propose just because he felt sorry for her.”

“Three steps back okay?” Shima said. “Why would Juu-ni feel sorry for Mamushi?”

“Mamushi betrayed us; all of the Myodha,” Nishiki explained rapidly. Shima could hear her struggling to keep her voice steady as she did so. “She really believed she was doing the right thing. I mean it’s Mamushi, can you picture anything else? But, well, if not for that Okumura kid the whole Kyoto metropolitan area would be dead today and it’s Mamushi’s fault our defenses were compromised. Dad kicked her out of the family, out of the Myodha. He was being lenient you know, since it releases her from her oaths. Not two hours later Juuzo proposed. I guess that means she’ll be like Bon’s mom: Not Myodha but still family. Well, your family anyway, not mine, not anymore.” Her voice caught, “I really hope it’s not just pity.” 

“What was it you said about Bon?” Shima said to change the subject. 

Nishiki took a deep, calming breath. “That was… something else. The council decided they’d feel better about you nominating Satan’s kid as Bon’s new bodyguard if he were oath-bound to Bon.”

“Uggh, are people being stupid about Rin-kun?” Shima interrupted.

“After he saved everyone, not so much. And if your brothers don’t like him it’s all your fault!” Nishiki scolded. “They’re worried about you and he’s an easy target. The council arranged a formal ceremony, all the bells and whistles, to bind Okumura-kun to Bon. And I think they got more than they were expecting.” 

“Oh?” Shima asked.

“Bon bound himself back to Okumura-kun, Ucchusma blessed the bond and Okumura-kun, well, he lit-up the whole network. Made all oath-bonds joining the Myodha and our familiars visible. Visible hell, it was a fire-works display. And Bon’s the heart of the Myodha, not Ossama, everyone saw that. The council still might look to Ossama as our leader, but no one else will…. But that’s a secret,” Nishiki added conspiratorially. “Can’t let the True Cross know until Bon’s learned everything he can from them.” 

“Rin’s okay with being bound?” Shima asked.

“Ask me again when the honeymoon phase is over,” Nishiki replied. “Right after the ceremony I’d have sworn he was practically drunk off good vibes.”

“I can see that,” Shima said with a sigh. “Rin-kun needs to belong to something so bad it hurts to look at him sometimes. I guess Bon’ll take care of him.” He chuckled, “And if he doesn’t Izumo-chan’ll kick his ass.”

“I can see _that_ ,” Nishiki agreed. “I’ll spread the word about the kids. While I’m at it, I’ll let your family know that you’re alive.”

“Thanks,” Shima said distractedly as he caught sight of Amaimon slipping back into the hotel. “Talk to you later.”

“So what are you up to?” Shima asked Amaimon.

The Earth King stared at him for several moments then brushed past Shima and let himself back into the hotel room. “Afterwards we’re taking everyone to Delphi,” he announced. 

“The original seat of Gaia’s power?” Neuhaus asked.

“Her original body,” Amaimon replied. “I talked to mother. If we go there I think she’ll take back her own body instead of keeping Shiemi’s.”


	16. Selected Memories

Shura glanced at the clock then unplugged her coffeemaker.

“I just put that on,” Yukio objected.

“You’re exhausted,” Shura said.

“I slept for nearly twenty-four hours thanks to you,” Yukio pointed out. He dreaded the thought of his dreams, of facing Rin with Felix, Leo and Rene’s blood on his hands.

“Yeah, and that was what? Thirty-six hours ago?” Shura scoffed.

“You’re not my mother,” Yukio snapped.

“Certainly not! I’m WAY too young,” Shura instantly declared. Then more seriously she said, “But you are my agent in the Facility. You’re tired and strung out and I can’t have that. So I’m going to make you a deal, those explosives you want? Get a normal night’s sleep tonight and tomorrow and eat like a human being, and I’ll get them for you... If you still want them once you’re thinking halfway straight.”

“Deal,” Yukio said. He turned and walked into Shura’s spare room without word.

He grabbed a book and sat at his desk, determined not to fall asleep regardless of what he’d told Shura but only a few pages later his eyelids started to droop.

* * *

_Shiro sat on a bench behind the monastery with a bible open in his lap, Yukio pressed close on one side and Rin on the other. The two little boys’ heels kicked against the seat of the bench as they listened to Shiro read. “And the Lord God said unto the woman, ‘What is this that thou hast done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’ And the Lord God said unto the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life’.”_

_“The serpent is the devil, right?” Yukio asked in a high piping voice. “Eve talked to him.”_

_“That’s the typical interpretation,” Shiro replied._

* * *

_“I’m not making stuff up!” Yukio exclaimed, tears running down the four-year-old’s face._

_“I know,” Shiro said quietly. “You see demons. I know they’re real.”_

_“Why doesn’t anyone else see them?” Yukio cried. “They say I’m imagining stuff and I’m a scaredy cat, afraid of my own shadow.”_

_“You can only see demons if you have a masho, an injury given by a demon,” Shiro explained. “Most people are too close-minded to admit that there might be more to the world than they can see with their own eyes.”_

_“Why do I have one?” Yukio whined. “I don’t want to see them! They’re mean!”_

_“Most of the ones you see are low-level demons. They can’t hurt you. In fact they don’t have the power to do much of anything and that frustrates them so they play mean tricks on people.” Shiro explained. “Tell you what, you keep me up to date about what you see, I’ll teach you about them. And if they can hurt you, I’ll make them go away. But it has to be our secret because most people don’t see them and don’t believe in them.”_

_“Can I tell Niisan?” Yukio asked._

_Shiro sighed. “You know if you tell Rin that someone is picking on you, he’ll try to fight them. Let’s not give him anything more battles to fight than we have to okay?”_

* * *

_“How did I get a masho so young?” Yukio asked shortly after he’d begun training as an Exorcist. “Did demons kill my parents?”_

_“It’s not quite that simple,” Shiro said. “You and Rin were fathered by a demon, but your mother was human.”_

_“I’m one of those things?” Yukio exclaimed in distress._

_“No, no, you’re human,” Shiro said quickly. “You were always human. You were very weak when you were born, we think that’s why you were spared inheriting your father’s powers.”_

_“Rin,” Yukio realized. “He’s a demon, he gave me my masho.”_

_“It happened when you were born,” Shiro confirmed. “It wasn’t intentional on Rin’s part, he was just a baby too. Even now, Rin still doesn’t know his own strength.”_

_“I was sent to kill him, both of you in all honesty,” Shiro admitted. “But you were human and Rin was just an innocent baby. He didn’t have any more control over how he was born than you did. A friend of mine sealed Rin’s powers so that he could grow up as a human. It wasn’t right, his future shouldn’t have been predetermined by an accident of birth.”_

* * *

_“My father wasn’t a normal demon was he?” Yukio asked Shiro seriously. “Several of the Exorcists I’ve met at the True Cross have demon blood don’t they? They don’t talk about it, like it’s something they’re ashamed of, but they don’t go to the lengths to hide it that you did with Niisan.”_

_“I suppose it was foolish of me to hope you wouldn’t notice,” Shiro said ruefully._

_“Who was he?” Yukio asked._

_“You know, I really don’t empathize with other parents when they worry about the birds and bees conversation,” Shiro procrastinated._

_“No you ENJOYED traumatizing me forever and it only came up because YOU introduced me to that Shura-person,” Yukio complained crossing his arms over his chest and giving his father a stern look. “Now would you stop stalling Dad?”_

_“Well, I guess there’s really no good way to say this,” Shiro sighed. “Your father was Satan, Rin was born with born wreathed in blue flames, as far as I know he’s the only one to ever inherit Satan’s powers.”_

* * *

_“It’s a trap!” Shiro shouted. “Maruta, get Yukio out of here! Your abilities are useless against the King of Flames.”_

_The rotund exorcist grabbed Yukio by the arm and turned to flee with the newly minted Exwire but their retreat was cut off by a tall man wreathed in orange flames._

_Yukio stared, he’d never seen such a human looking demon before. The man had bright red hair and dusky skin. His eyes were the same orange as the flames that danced around him. He drew back his lips in a sneer revealing sharply pointed fangs as he stared down at Yukio. “I’d heard the former Paladin had taken my baby brother but this is just some human whelp.”_

_Morkin crashed into the demon, knocking him away from Yukio and Maruta. A moment later, Nagatomo dispelled his familiar to save him from the demon’s flames. Kyodo quickly took the point, trying to drive the demon back with his fists. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the burns forming on his hands as he pushed the demon back. As soon as line of fire was clear Shiro discharged his shotgun. The demon leapt back to avoid the holy-water pellets._

_“Allah questioned him, ‘What prevented thee from submitting when I commanded thee?’ He retorted, ‘I am better than he. Thou hast created me of fire while him hast Thou created of clay.’ Allah said, ‘In that case, depart hence. It behoves thee not to be arrogant here. Get out, thou art surely of those abased’.” Izumi thundered. The flame wreathed demon collapsed, leaving behind an average, abet well-dressed, man in his place._

_Izumi hurried to place a seal on the man to prevent the demon’s return while Shiro went to Kyodo’s aid. Yukio slipped past Maruta and went to help with Kyodo’s injuries. He winched at the sight of the old priest’s blistered and blackened hands, but bit his lip and started digging through Shiro’s bag, picking out the salves that would be needed and laying them out for Shiro’s use._

_Once Kyodo’s hands had been treated and bandaged Shiro sat back on his heels, his shoulders sagging with relief. “It’ll be a few months but you’ll heal,” he said. “That was a recent possession. We were lucky to get off so lightly against Iblis.”_

_“He was looking for Niisan wasn’t he?” Yukio asked._

_Shiro nodded. “That’s why we have to protect Rin from them. The demons see him as one of them, they’d take away his chance to be human if they get ahold of him,” he said. “But as long as his powers are sealed they should see him as a human even if there are rumors in Gehenna that I didn’t actually carry out my last mission as Paladin.”_

* * *

_After the call, Yukio hurried home from the Academy as quickly as he could. Rin’s seal was breaking down, demons were coming after his brother, and all his training was going to go to waste because the bus driver couldn’t even drive the damn speed limit._

_When the bus dropped him off, Yukio sprinted toward the Monastery. From the other end of the block he saw a blue glow emanating from the church. But when he finally got there all was still. Yukio walked slowly into his childhood home, past shattered pews. He saw his father’s body and his brother kneeling nearby, his ears and, and tail marking him as a demon._

_The seal was broken, Rin was a demon, their dad was dead and Yukio was as useless as if he’d never trained at all, just stayed that scared little boy hiding behind his twin. Only hiding behind Rin was pointless, because Rin was the one who needed protection and Rin was one of the demons now. Rin threw away his chance to be human without a thought to how much everyone had sacrificed for his sake._

_Their father had been the Paladin, the strongest Exorcist of all and now he was dead, leaving just Yukio behind to serve as Rin’s protector. Staring at his father’s body Yukio felt more like he was still an untrained child hiding under his covers rather than the ranking Exorcist on site._

_Over the next few days as they prepared for Shiro’s funeral, the impossibility of the task he’d been left with crashed over Yukio again and again. Every time he looked at Rin and saw Shiro’s failure in the demonic features that had twisted Rin’s face into something alien Yukio knew there was no way he’d manage to succeed where Shiro had failed._

_Yukio watched Rin’s childish, incompetent attempts to hide what he’d become from his twin and knew that Rin would be discovered, sooner rather than later. By demons, by the Grigori, it didn’t matter, either would destroy whatever was left of Rin. Shiro had died protecting Rin and it was all going to be for nothing because Rin was too reckless, too thoughtless._

_Rin was even more incompetent as he tried to fulfill the role of the eldest son and arrange the funeral. Yukio saw red when Kyodo quietly stepped in and took care of the actual arrangements, calmly asking Rin to make simple decisions and to agreed to the arrangements Kyodo was making so that Rin felt like he was doing his duty. “Stop babying him!” Yukio had finally shouted. “None of this would have happened if you didn’t all coddle him so much!”_

_It was after the cremation, when they were picking Shiro’s bones out the ashes and transferring them to the urn that it occurred to Yukio that the only way he could possibly fulfill Shiro’s last wish and protect Rin would be to stop Rin from being Rin._

* * *

_Yukio knelt in the center of the infirmary staring blankly at the floor. Felix lay on the table, still and dead after Yukio had stopped him from being a demon. Yukio was cover in Rene and Leo’s blood, their bodies lay scattered on the floor where they’d fallen. The room was silent and empty._

_Then the silence was broken by the soft sound of footsteps._

_Rin crouched in front of Yukio. Carefully, gently he started cleaning Yukio’s bloody hands with a warm cloth. “You didn’t know what was going to happen,” Rin said after a few minutes. “You were trying to help. You didn’t mean for anyone to die.”_

_Yukio drew back warily. “Who are you?” he asked. “Because I know that’s not my subconscious talking.”_

_Rin’s image faded out like a wisp of smoke. A woman stepped out of the shadows, her frame was small like Rin’s but her face was more oval and her eyes were the same turquoise as Yukio’s own, dark curly hair spilled down her back._

_“Why should I believe that this form is any less a lie than the last one?” Yukio asked as recognized his mother from Egin’s pictures._

_“So stubborn,” Yuri sighed. “But you certainly come by it honestly. Your family tree is over-flowing with terribly, wonderfully stubborn people.”_

_Yuri reached out to Yukio again as if to cup his cheek. He flinched back and her eyes filled with sympathetic sorrow. “You are so unbelievably smart Yukio, and I know that makes it hard for you to believe this, but you don’t have to have every answer. Life isn’t an exam, it doesn’t come with clean, correct responses. I’ve watched you over and over again. When you see the pieces coming together to reveal that there is no pat answer you shut your eyes to messiness of life, force yourself to believe that there is a simple, right answer and push ahead. You try to make life fit into your predefined boxes. Baby, there are no neat answers to people and they keep wiggling out of whatever box you put them in.”_

_“I couldn’t talk to you like this until you let your defenses fall, but I tried to get you look at the things you turn away from. I tried to warn you off the path you’d begun to follow but Fujimoto’s been poisoning you against your brother and your father since you were tiny.” For a moment Yukio saw a flash of Shiro crouched behind him, teaching him how to hold a gun. The weapon looked huge in Yukio’s seven-year-old hands. The vision was overlaid with an image of a younger Shiro coolly firing on a small group of Snowmen; forcing Yuri to return to the Order or see her demon friends slaughtered before her eyes. “I’m sorry you had to learn the truth in such a painful way: It isn’t demons who are the evil ones.”_

_Yukio shook his head violently to clear away the vision. “What do you want?” he demanded flatly._

_Yuri looked hurt. “You’re my little boy, how can I turn away when you’re hurting so? Yukio, please believe me: You didn’t kill them.” She tried to reach out to Yukio only to let her hand fall to her side when he evaded her touch again._

_Then she straightened and said, “Finish things with your grandfather. I was a fool to think I could change him by leaving and I missed my chance. Because he was my father, I allowed this obscenity to continue on for two decades more. But after it’s done you should leave. Distance yourself from the True Cross and it’s murderers.”_

_“Go to college?” Yukio asked sardonically._

_“That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Yuri replied._

_“Egin had the same one.”_

_“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,” Yuri shrugged._

_“And Rin?” Yukio asked flatly. “Should I leave him to the Grigori’s devices?”_

_“It may take time to extricate your twin from the mess he’s gotten himself into,” Yuri sighed. “But trust me to look after him. I’ll see him safely to where he belongs. And in the short term, though it pains me to say anything kind about Samuel... He’s a terrible son! ...But he isn’t so bad of an elder brother. In the short term he’ll keep Rin from harm.”_

_Yukio gave her a cool look. “But I don’t trust you. I don’t know that you’re who you claim you are. I don’t wish to believe that my mother could think so little of the man who raised me; he loved Rin more than anything, don’t try to tell me otherwise! I don’t know that I could trust you even if I was sure that you are who you claim. If you’re yet another person who knew and stood by and watched while I killed Felix, I will never forgive you, no matter who you are. You have no business telling me what I can and can’t hold myself responsible for. You’re no one to me.”_

_Yuri looked at Yukio sadly, “At least be careful,” she said. “If not for me or for yourself then for Rene. Don’t throw away what he sacrificed so much to protect.”_

* * *

“Great Mother?” Maria asked uncertainly as she approached the small girl standing at the edge of the hotel’s roof watching the sunrise.

“My time on Assiah has passed,” Gaia said, not turning from the sky. “As my son reminds me, I have had epic disputes with past lovers when they refused to step aside for the next generation. But I cannot ignore my children’s pained cries.”

The La Llorona knelt and listened respectfully as Gaia continued.

“The Void-Walker claims that we have long denied the dawn of humanity’s day. That our cycle of apocalypse and re-creation of Assiah prevents them from taking their place alongside us as gods. This Assiah is older than any other I know of and if this is a preview of what we may expect from human gods, then we have done well to keep them stunted.”

“But I see the brightness too... Not this gilded monstrosity,” Gaia gestured dismissively to the neon lit street. “The creatures of Assiah have an energy, a life to them that Gehenna lacks. I’d forgotten how gleaming this material world is. Assiah was originally created in Gehenna’s image, and yet, when I look upon this vitality I wonder has our reflection outgrown us? Is it us bashing in the reflected glow of Assiah’s fierce life?”

Gaia closed her eyes and turned her focus inward for a moment. “This child who hosts me, this impossibly young, transient little being, her soul is older than even I. These humans, they’re born, they live and die and then they forget and are born again. While we gehennans grow ever older and more powerful until our power becomes so cumbersome that all we are capable of is adding ourselves to the wall that shelters us all from the Void and dreaming of younger days.”

“And then there are those like you,” Gaia said as she turned to look down at the La Llorona. “Once a human soul, unable to forget, trapped in a moment. I don’t know what will become of you once you merge with my half-human granddaughters. Your current deadlock will be broken, but I do not know if you will be restored to the human cycle of reincarnation or if you will join the gehennan march through omnipotence to helpless fossilization.”

Then Gaia shook off her contemplative mood. “I didn’t summon you to simply listen to me ramble,” she said. A number of tiny greenmen crept out of the shadows. “Perhaps my son is correct and I should not force my presence on this world unwanted. But before I consider leaving I will see my children’s safety assured.”

“Before the infiltrator opens the wards so that you may begin merging with my granddaughters, you will guide my greenmen so that they may plant themselves at every egress to the Fortress,” Gaia declared.

Maria bowed lower, “As the Great Mother commands.”

“Wait,” Shiemi ordered, taking back her body. //Gaia, what are you planning?//

//I told the boy that we don’t need an army; what we do require is preparation,// Gaia replied.

For several moments Shiemi hesitated, uncertain, but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to do anything that might compromise their rescue mission, no matter what Gaia planned for those who staffed the Facility, not with the lives of so many children at stake. “Go,” she told the La Llorona.

* * *

Egin was standing in the door to the morgue when Yukio arrived for his shift the day after Rene died. Through the open door Yukio could see his cousin’s body. Rene had been cleaned up and redressed in fresh clothes. If an autopsy had been performed, Saul had gone to the trouble of making sure it wasn’t readily apparent. Watching Egin, Yukio got the impression that the man had been standing there for a long time.

Saul stepped out of his office. At the sight of Yukio his expression turned wary, after all the last time he’d spoken with Yukio the younger exorcist had threatened to shoot him. Yukio squared his shoulders and reminded himself that this was necessary if he wanted to bring down the Facility. He walked across the room and bowed shortly to his supervisor. “Patternson-Sensei, I apologize for my behavior yesterday. Despite your warnings I was not prepared for the outcome of my experiment. Please excuse my completely inappropriate actions.”

At the sound of Yukio’s voice Egin turned away from Rene’s body.

“Most novice researcher make the same mistake,” Saul said magnanimously. “And I do understand that working with the younger subjects makes maintaining the proper objectivity especially difficult.”

“It doesn’t appear that we have any patients today,” Yukio said. “And my project needs rethinking, obviously. I could take over preparing sedative drips for the breeders. I know it’s a tedious duty.”

“If you’re sure you can manage?” Saul asked.

“I assure you, I have studied demon-sedatives at length,” Yukio replied. He went to start gathering the ingredients needed, assuming Saul would agree.

Egin took a deep breath and resolutely turned his back on Rene. “Dr. Patterson, if you’ve extracted all possible data from the corpse dispose of it as normal,” he ordered.

The vial Yukio had just picked up shattered in his hand. Saul and Egin both turned to stare. “Clumsy of me,” Yukio said with a tight smile as he clamped down on his wrist to stem the bleeding.

“Here, let me see that,” Saul said as he grabbed tweezers and a roll of bandages. He pulled Yukio over to the sink and thrust his hand under a stream of water then quickly picked the shards of glass out of the wound. After a last rinse with an antiseptic solution Saul wrapped the bandage securely around Yukio’s hand.

While Yukio was being treated Egin hovered in the background. When Saul finished Egin clasped Yukio’s shoulder. “Not so bad then,” he said with a smile. He watched Saul walk across the room to dispose of the bloody tissues. Egin glanced back toward the room containing Rene’s body. “At least you weren’t harmed yesterday,” he said to Yukio in a low voice. “Perhaps something of Rene remained within the demon.”

“Then bury him properly,” Yukio hissed back, unable to stop himself. Rene had just wanted this man to acknowledge him for so many years.

Egin shook his head. “The Facility Director can show no sympathy for demons.”

“Of course not,” Yukio replied tightly. He shrugged out from under Egin’s hand and went back to calculating how best to sabotage the sedative he was preparing.

* * *

Shura leaned back on the barstool next to Neuhaus, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “You’ve got a plan... Once I figure out how to get them across practically the whole continent?”

“It’s the Hell King’s plan,” Neuhaus replied with a small shrug.

“Let me think on it,” Shura said. “Got any idea of how much pursuit’s likely?”

Neuhaus grimaced. “Depends on how much control Moriyama can maintain. Michelle and I had kids, then the Blue Night happened. Given what we’ve heard? The mass grave, Gaia’s grandchildren tortured, torn apart and thrown away like so much garbage... If Moriyama loses control, I can’t imagine there’ll be much of Rio left standing when Gaia’s done.”

* * *

Yukio stood in the elevator at the Facility. His hand hovered over the button for level five. He hadn’t been down to the cells in three days.

‘Meda’s seal doesn’t matter anymore,’ Yukio thought. ‘She won’t be six for another five days. By then she’ll either be rescued or we’ll all be dead.’

Yukio’s hand slid away from the button.

‘No one’s reading to them or playing with them,’ he realized.

His hand moved closer to the button.

‘Even if it’s just a few more days before the rescue attempt, Kit and Kermit should still get their bottles,’ Yukio reminded himself.

His finger pressed down on the button. The elevator jerked to life.

‘Meda’s civilized enough not to steal food from them.’ Yukio thought as the doors opened. He froze as the thought reached it’s logical conclusion: ‘There’s no one else in the cell now. I killed Felix and Leo,’

The doors slid shut again as Yukio stood there, unable to move forward. Eventually someone else called for the elevator. Yukio got off on that floor and pretended it was where he planned to go.

He checked the explosives he’d hidden on that level and called it a day.

* * *

In their cell, Meda gathered Kit and Kermit under her arms.

“Goosey, goosey gander, whither do you wander?” she recited. “Upstairs and down stairs and in my lady’s chamber. There I met an old man who wouldn’t say his prayers, so I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.” She smiled and her eyes gleamed vengefully. “The stairs went crack and he broke his back. And all the little ducks went Quack! Quack! Quack!”

She cuddled the two little boys close. “Soon, little duckies. The old man will get what’s coming to him, soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eve and the Apple: Genesis 3:13-14, KJV
> 
> I thought I’d use something about Iblis for his fatal verse. The quote is from the Quran, 7:13-14… Also I wanted to get that verse in before Iblis shows up.
> 
> “Goosey, Goosey Gander” is from Mother Goose.


	17. Assault on the Facility

“It’s time.” 

Yukio pocketed his cell phone. His eyes never left the deep violet eyes staring out of the containment tube. In their depths he could recognize the La Llorona’s leader. In her new form Maria was pale skinned with dark, almost indigo hair. Beneath the gravid swell of her belly her lower body was feathered, her legs tapering down into the claws of a raptor. Her upper body was human, except for the hawk’s wings sprouting from her shoulder blades. As Yukio watched her wings spread slightly within the confines of the tube and he realized she’d been pinioned.

When he looked past her, Yukio saw the other girls stirring, testing their new forms. 

“They’re coming,” he mouthed. “Be patient for just a little while longer.”

Maria nodded then shut her eyes. 

Yukio waited half an hour for the others to get into position. Then he took out his phone again and dialed Egin’s number.

* * *

Shura met Shiemi and the others at the edge of campus. “This way,” she said as she turned off the trail and led them along the cliff-face. She pointed out the Graveyard Cypress and the small opening behind it. “Through there. Wait for Yukio to bring the elevator down or you’ll trip the alarms early.”

Neuhaus nodded. “You’ll be ready up top?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shura replied, waving off his concern. “I’ve got the easy job. Don’t worry, everything’ll be waiting. Just see that you get there,” she said as she walked away.

Amaimon led the way into the cave.

The opening was no more than a slit to start with and ceiling rapidly dropped as they made their way in. After just a few feet Shima was crouching awkwardly to keep from scraping Shiemi’s head against the lowest of the rocky protrusions.

“Let me down,” Shiemi said quietly. “This is the deal I made: the loan of my body so Gaia could rescue her daughter.”

Shima let her slip to the ground. Moss giving off a soft phosphorescent glow sprang into existence and slowly spread from the point where her feet touched. “Guess we can save the torch batteries,” he remarked wryly.

In the rear Michelle heard soft shuffling footsteps behind them. She crouched and spun back, her spiders preparing for battle. Following behind them she saw dozens of greenmen and hobgoblins. “Friends of yours?” she called.

“Yes,” Amaimon and Shiemi replied. “Even with the girls, we’ll need help guiding everyone out,” Shiemi continued. “Especially if they’re as bad off as Okumura Yukio said.”

The ceiling continued to drop. They crawled onward for what seemed like an eternity. Neuhaus’ shoulders scraped against the narrow walls of the tunnel. The moss spread ahead of them like a carpet, filling the tight space with a cool blue glow. The air was thick with the smell of decay. 

Shima stopped moving.

_An arm like a steel band crushed him against a massive chest. No one was coming for him, no one cared about him, that knowledge filled him with a hopelessness that went beyond despair. Taki-ni would take care of Bon and no one cared about him enough to come. Black flames erupted around him filling the entire tunnel with their non-light. “It’ll be okay, Ren-chan. I’ve got you.”_

“Shima-kun?” Shiemi asked worriedly. She’d turned back when she sensed him falling back. 

“It’s- I’m good,” Shima replied shaking off the flash of memory. 

They continued on then, suddenly, the tunnel opened up into a vast cavern. There were fresh bodies tossed on top of the mass grave Yukio and Shura had found, giving evidence of the Facility’s on-going atrocities. Sheimi swallowed harshly as she climbed to her feet. She could feel Gaia’s icey rage raising but for Shiemi it was background noise. Her eyes wide with horror and disbelief she stumbled toward the edge of the pit. “So many…” she whispered. Then her voice rose. “How could anyone do this?” Vines erupted from the ground at her feet and lashed widely around her as the ground trembled.

Amaimon stared at the bodies for a long time, without saying anything. 

Michelle was crying silently.

Shiemi was shaking with fury and shock, “How could anyone do this?” she demanded again. “How could they?” 

//When the wickedness of humans grows beyond all bounds, it is a god’s preview to strike them down,// Gaia’s voice and presence filled Shiemi’s mind with the enormity of her power. The phosphorescent moss spread down into the pit, illuminating the bodies, carrying Gaia’s, and Shiemi’s, awareness with it. Tears coursed down Shiemi’s face. //Helike, Tripura, Ys, Iram, Sodom and Gomorrah. Let go Little One, it is my duty and my right to consume this corrupt place.// 

Shima skirted around the edge of the cavern, his nose buried in his elbow, until he reached the elevator doors. “Are we really going to wait for Okumura?” he asked.

“Stick to the plan,” Neuhaus said grimly. To himself he muttered, “Even knowing what to expect…” and shook his head.

The greenmen and hobgoblins assembled near Shiemi and Amaimon. They looked at the two of them expectantly but it was Gaia who answered. “Leave them. It’s not just my blood they’ve slaughtered. They’ve attracted attention beyond my own with this orgy of evil. Let them reap all they’ve sown.” 

“Okumura might not be the first one to come down here,” Neuhaus cautioned. “Try being a little less conspicuous.” He gestured to the glowing moss.

“It matters not,” Gaia replied. “Those guilty in this will die. Those who stand in my way will simply die a bit sooner.”

“Right,” Neuhaus said dubiously. “I’d still rather you quenched the light display.”

Gaia turned and stared at him as if she couldn’t believe he’d dared to contradict her. The moss continued to spread.

After what seemed like a very long time the elevator slid open. They arrayed themselves around it warily, but it was only Yukio. He stood in the door, holding it open. Shima immediately pushed past him. The pink haired Exwire was closely followed by a crowd of greenmen and hobgoblins.

“I can’t ferry this many up without getting caught,” Yukio protested as he took in the number of demons that had joined the rescue.

Gaia took her place in the elevator. “You have sabotaged our exit? They cannot seal it against us?”

“It’s done,” Yukio said.

“Then let them sound their alarms,” Gaia declared. “It will do them no good.”

“Fine,” Yukio agreed. “Once the alarm goes off it will draw more people in. If you fail that means more of these monsters taken out when I set off the explosives.”

Gaia deemed him unworthy of a response. 

The elevator rose slowly. “We’re headed for the eleventh floor,” Yukio explained. “Echidna and the girls are there. The infants are on the tenth floor. The younger children are on the fifth. The older ones who are being used as subjects are on the sixth floor and there are currently two kids in the infirmary on the twelfth floor recovery from injuries. Neither of them are going to be able to walk but they’re stable enough that you won’t kill them by moving them either.”

Gaia nodded. They emptied the elevator and Yukio headed back down for the Neuhauses, Amaimon and the rest of the demons.

“Knight, is your familiar willing to aid us?” Gaia asked Shima. 

“To kill exorcists?” Shima asked rhetorically. “Yamantaka is always up for that.”

“Then I will leave you to hold this door,” Gaia replied. “My subjects will aid you. I go to retrieve my daughter and her daughters.”

“The rest of us will be up here before you know it. I won’t let this point be taken until they are,” Shima replied with a bow.

“I will hold you to your word Knight,” Gaia replied. “Do not fall.” 

She turned toward the room where she could sense her daughter waiting for rescue. As the door slid open for her several researchers noticed Gaia. “Who are you? You shouldn’t be here.”

Gaia waved her hand and the seeds the greenmen had been planting on the Facility personnel as they came and went burst into riotous growth. The vines rooted painfully in the flesh of their victims, instantly twining around them and rendering them immobile. “Your bodies will provide a fertile bed for my plants,” Gaia remarked as she strode past them.

In the depths of her mind Shiemi stirred uncertainly, but then she remembered the mass grave and subsided.

Gaia stared briefly, uncomprehendingly at the controls and readouts on the tank containing Echidna then shrugged. She placed her hands flat against the floor, reached through it to the mountain the Facility had been carved out of and it shifted in response.

* * *

Shura braced herself as the ground swayed. She watched the tourists scream and run about in a panic. “Well, I guess I skip yelling ‘There’s a bomb’,” she said. 

She walked over and grabbed one of the tourist guides. “There may be aftershocks,” she said. “You better start organizing an evacuation.”

* * *

Shima had been in the middle of removing the rings on his staff and replacing them with a blade when the earthquake caught him. He stumbled and caught his balance on the staff, holding the blade far away from himself. When the ground stilled he slid it into place and tighten the ring that secured it.

He glanced at the lights on the elevator and saw they were still moving. “Good, it didn’t break,” he said to himself. “Didn’t see a stairwell down in the pit.”

The elevator was still six floors away when Shima and the demons Gaia had left with him were discovered by a member of the Facility’s security. The man was fast and his ammo was deadly. Two of the hobgoblins and a greenman were dead before they could muster a response. Then Yamantaka’s black flames wrapped around Shima. A second greenman snared the dragoon’s arm and his next shot discharged harmlessly into the floor. Shima impaled the guard, his spear channeled the black flames into the man. 

A moment later the guard’s soulless husk dropped to the ground but the damage had been done. Alarms filled the Facility’s hallways as the elevator doors opened and discharged more greenmen and hobgoblins as well as the Neuhaus’. Yukio tilted his head to the side listening to the alarms. “That was close,” he said. “The elevators will be locked down now.”

“So the Hell King and the remainder of the demons are out,” Neuhaus said. 

“Then take the stairs, go down a level and start collecting the infants,” Shima ordered, looking to Michelle and Neuhaus. “I’ll send the girls to help as soon as Gaia frees them.”

Everyone stared at the infamously laid-back Exwire in shock. “I’m sick of playing a part,” Shima stated. He turned to Neuhaus. “Your plan sucked. I’ll give you that Okumura didn’t turn on us, frankly a surprise. But Gaia’s here for vengeance as much as anything. Sneaking around, trying to minimize confrontation? Dumb. Counting on Shiemi to keep her in check? If she’s got any sense Shiemi’ll save her strength in case Gaia starts extending her reach beyond this cesspit. The Facility assholes can burn for all I care and you should all agree with me. Did you notice, the grave down stairs? It’s full of little kids. Gaia’s gonna kill everyone here, accept it. Our job is to make sure that they don’t get the chance to take out the kids before they die themselves.”

“Yeah, okay,” Neuhaus agreed giving Shima a wary look. 

Yukio ran and grabbed the badge off the security guard’s belt. “This will override the lock on the elevator. I’m willing to chance another run before they figure out that this guy’s down. Once I’ve got Amaimon and as many of his familiars as we can cram in we’ll start start freeing the younger kids. They know me at least a little, it might help to get them moving.”

“We should send some of the girls to help Yukio herd the kids,” Michelle told Shima.

Shima nodded. “Get going,” he said.

As she and Neuhaus entered the stairwell Michelle sent out her spiders. “Leave the floors we need open. Barricade every other entrance,” she commanded.

Neuhaus sent his naberius with a few of Michelle’s spiders riding them ahead into the nursery. The guards responded quickly and efficiently to the obvious threat of the naberius and were subdued by the spiders before they realized the true threat. The two former exorcists entered the room a minute after their familiars, to find the fight already over.

The eleventh floor was a single open room, the wall and floor were a uniform sterile white. Row upon row of tiny stainless-steel cages filled the room. A trolley stacked high with bottles slowly rolled to a stop, the Facility tech who’d been manning it lay on the floor cocooned in spider webbing. The room was eerily quiet.

“They don’t cry,” Michelle said sadly. “According to Okumura they’re all under two on this floor and they’ve already learned that no one cares enough to comfort them.”

Neuhaus had already starting on the first row of cages, passing the part-demon infants to the waiting greenmen and hobgoblins as soon as he’d freed them. He paused grasp a tiny hand that reached through the bars, his expression softening. “Someone cares now,” he said.

Michelle smiled and nodded as she joined her husband in emptying the cages. “Afterwards we’ll stay in Delphi with them. Even given Shima-kun’s efforts, there will be a lot of children needing parents, I think.”

* * *

“Mother, I’ve had such horrific dreams,” Echidna murmured as she leaned into Gaia, her withered wings flapping weakly. In the background alarms began to wail.

“Not dreams child,” Gaia replied, she fed her power into Echidna, strengthening long unused muscles. “You’ve been missing for nigh on two centuries. But we still have your daughters and their children to collect, there will be time for conversation later.” 

Echidna straightened, arranging her coils beneath her. “I’ve heard them crying,” she said. 

Gaia held her for one moment longer then turned resolutely to the room where Echidna’s daughters were held. 

The earthquake Gaia had used to free Echidna had shattered several of the tubes in the neighboring room as well. The former La Llorona who had been freed had promptly released the rest of their sisters. Like Echidna, they were weak and uncoordinated after their long confinement, but they were collecting themselves. Demonic energy, which could turn a dust-mote into a usable body, coursed through their atrophied limbs restoring them. 

The door crashed open and a number of guards spilled inside. There was a moment, just a moment where they paused at seeing the girls not only out of their tubes but awake and active. And in that moment Gaia summoned her plants from their seeds and it was over. The guards were ensnared, screaming as the seeds rooted themselves in their flesh. 

“Stealth no longer provides us any advantage,” Gaia remarked. She crouched and pressed her palms to the floor. Even though the Facility was underground it was still floor upon floor of man-made structure isolating Gaia from her kingdom. But in addition to the seeds the greenmen had been planting on the Facility personnel there were those naturally brought in on people’s clothes and shoes, there were mold spores and pollen in the air. 

For weeks Shiemi had been doing everything she could to reign Gaia’s power in, now the elder goddess pushed it outward, filling the Facility’s hallways with her presence. Moss and mold burst from crevices in the walls to carpet the Facility. Plants sprouted and bloomed, and most of all rooted. Gaia’s awareness followed her power and what Gaia saw, Shiemi saw.

* * *

Yukio was pressed up against the wall of the elevator by the crush of demons. On the other of the elevator three hobgoblins perched on Amaimon’s shoulders and head since there was no room for them on the floor. “Why are you helping us?” Amaimon demanded. “From what I’ve seen you should fit right in with this place.” 

“I was trying to save Rin,” Yukio protested.

“From being like me,” Amaimon stated.

“Yes,” Yukio agreed. “I wanted to save my brother from being a demon like you, but I can’t do it without killing him.”

The doors slid open on the fifth level. The guard stationed at the door was screaming, writhing within the cocoon of vines enshrouding him. Amaimon coolly walked past him and ripped the door off it’s hinges. Yukio spared the guard a quick glance, it was one of the ones who he’d seen stationed there regularly since he’d joined Facility back in January, but Kit, Meda and Kermit were waiting to be rescued. Yukio reached over the guard to grab the keys to the cells from his station.

Amaimon paused in the doorway and glanced back at Yukio, “Humans are so much better than demons,” he said sarcastically then turned and yanked a door off one of the cells. The six little kids inside cowered back staring at Amaimon fearfully.

Yukio unlocked the door to his kids’ cell. “Meda,” he called. “These people are going to take you somewhere safe.” Kit immediately ran to Yukio and wrapped himself around the older boy’s leg. Yukio gently disentangled himself and put Kit’s hand in Meda’s. “Keep an eye on Kit and Kermit for me,” he told her. 

Meda smiled. She held out her other hand for Kermit to take then led them out into the hall. In a ringing voice she called “Girls and boy, come out to play. The moon doth shine as bright as day. Leave your supper and leave your sleep. And come with your playfellows into the street.” In response the children began emerging cautiously from their cells.

Yukio smoothed Meda’s hair. “Good job,” he told her.

The greenmen and hobgoblins began taking the children by their hands and leading them toward the stairs.

* * *

Once they’d sent the girls down to help with the rescues Gaia, Shima, Maria and Echidna took the stairs up to the infirmary to retrieve the two injured children Yukio had mentioned.

They opened the door and saw Saul slumped against the far wall breathing in harsh gasps to try to control the pain as the plants rooting in his body dug in deeper and deeper. When he saw them he nodded toward his belt. “Keys… for their… restraints,” he said brokenly.

Gaia leaned down and plucked the key ring off him but it was Shiemi who asked, “Why are you helping us?”

Saul grimaced. “We’ve already lost,” he gasped. “Might as well show some grace. ‘Sides, be a shame… if you wrecked my work breaking them free.”

//Wait,// Shiemi told Gaia and the vines drew back at her command. Saul sighed in unexpected relief as the pain eased.

Gaia pressed back, filling Shiemi’s mind with images of the pit, of blood stained chambers and barren cages. //Don’t fight me Little One. You won’t win and they’re not worth it.//

//It doesn’t mean they should all die,// Shiemi protested.

Gaia reached out to her grandchildren and great grandchildren, collected their memories and fed them to Shiemi.

_Unyielding hands forcing him into restraints. Long, terrifying moments of waiting. Then a sharp report. Burning pain, blood pouring out of his thigh. Screaming over and over and over again while a dozen people stood by and took notes._

_Staring out at a sterile world through a mesh of wire. Clawing emptiness in her belly. Finally a bottle shoved inside the cage. Wanting, longing for something, not knowing what, when the big person who brought the bottle walked away without looking back._

Memories of torture and neglect. Memories upon memories, day by day grinding it in: “The only thing about you that matters at all is how you bleed and break and die. Nothing else about you is of the slightest importance.”

Tears streamed down Shiemi’s face. Slowly Gaia extended her power again, overriding Shiemi’s faltering resolve.

* * *

Shura sent her familiars into the panicky crowds trying to evacuate Corcovado Mountain. Then she waited at the secret door leading into the Facility to intercept anyone responding to the alarms who made it past her demon snakes.

The door creaked open and Michelle, carrying a baby in one arm, led a host of the La Llorona out of the Facility. Each of the girls was carrying one or two babies with her. 

“The red tour bus,” Shura informed her. “The driver’s a drinking buddy of mine. He and several friends will drive us out of the city. Let’s just hope no one has a masho,” she added taking in the girls and infants’ demonic features as well as the hobgoblins and greenmen accompanying them.

Michelle nodded, “At least one group of the Facility’s guards managed to free themselves of Gaia’s trap. Igor and a half-dozen greenmen are holding them off,” she reported. Then she and the girls joined the evacuation. They calmly loaded the bus and waited for their turn to evacuate.

* * *

As soon as Yukio opened the first of the cells on the sixth floor a girl who looked to be about ten lunged at him, claws extended. Acting on reflex, Yukio side-stepped her attack then slammed the butt of his gun between her shoulderblades, driving her to the floor. Yukio stared at her in horror as her age registered. 

Across the hall Amaimon received a similar greeting. He grabbed the boy who’d attacked him by his tail and dragged him out to the center of the hall. “Listen up brats!” Amaimon shouted as the boy howled in pain. “I’m the Earth King and I’m your uncle so settle down and behave!”

The children blinked at him in shock. Then one after another, stepped back from the doors to their cell and politely awaited rescue.

As Yukio and Amaimon worked their way down the row of cells they heard shots fired from the stairwell. For a moment they stared at each other questioningly. Then Yukio shoved the keys he’d liberated into Meda’s hand. “Keep going,” he shouted. “I’ll handle it.”

Yukio pushed through the crowd of children, greenmen and hobgoblins on the stairs. He could still hear shots being fired. At the head of the escape party, the greenmen had grown briars to shelter behind. Several of the hobgoblins had expanded to their battle forms and were trying to take the fight to the exorcists. A dozen demons and several children lay dead on the stairs.

Yukio glanced at the landing. ‘Gas labs, makes sense they’d be the ones to neutralize Gaia’s plants,’ he thought. He pulled a remote out of his belt, pushed a few buttons then smiled grimly as a gout of flames spilled out into the stairwell from the level above where the exorcists’ resistance appeared to be concentrated.

Even before the flames died out Yukio had begun returning fire. The greenmen extended their barricades up the stairs and with Yukio providing covering fire the hobgoblins were able to overrun the exorcists’ position while only suffering a few more casualties. 

“Let’s keep a combat unit up front-” Yukio began. Then he saw movement from above, spun and aimed only to pull up when he recognized one of Neuhaus’ familiars.

“We’re clear above,” Neuhaus said as he joined Yukio. A handful of the former La Llorona slipped past Yukio to mingle with the children, helping to organize the escape. “Michelle’s already got the infants loaded on the first bus and ready to move.”

“Amaimon should have the rest of the kids moving shortly.” Yukio replied. 

Neuhaus nodded and turned back up the stairs. Yukio waved several of the hobgoblins after him then started the children moving again. 

Yukio’s cellphone vibrated. He glanced at the display and saw Egin’s name.

* * *

Gaia didn’t resist as Shiemi took control of the mental link she’d forged with the children. She didn’t object as Shiemi searched with increasing desperation through their memories. While Shiemi immersed herself in the memories, spreading and expanding the link until she was scanning the memories of not only the Demon-blooded children but those in whom Gaia’s plants were rooted as well, Gaia extended her reach. 

Gaia brought more and more of her seeds to life. Within the Facility Gaia activated spores and seeds in the air until the halls looked like an exploded petri dish. And she reached out to the mountain then to the city beyond, reaching for those seeds planted on Facility personnel who weren’t even at the Facility, extending herself to ensure that her vengeance was complete. 

_A gentle hand rested on his shoulder for a moment._

_A rag doll superstitiously passed through cell bars._

Shiemi all but wept with relief as her search began to uncover small kindnesses.

//It won’t stay my hand,// Gaia stated. //Whatever momentary impulse drove those acts they lacked the strength or conviction to do anything meaningful.//

//I won’t kill them for being weak,// Shiemi declared.

//You don’t have to,// Gaia replied. //I will.//

//If I let you I’d be no different from them: Crumbling before a great power, too afraid to stand up for what I know to be right,// Shiemi said.

//If you must Little One, resist to the best of your ability. Let it be your body rather than your soul that bares the weight of their deaths. But either way I will have justice for my murdered children.//

* * *

“Yukio, thank God you’re alright,” Egin exclaimed when he saw his grandson step out of the stairwell. 

“I’ve located Echidna in the Infirmary, but she’s awake and there are three others with her,” Egin continued. “Recapturing her won’t be easy, but I will not allow the Facility to fall on my watch. With your help we will start again someplace new.”

Yukio glanced past Egin through the window in the Infirmary door. He could see Shiemi standing in the middle of the room. Her head was thrown back, features contorted with agony, her body emitted an intense green glow. 

“You don’t want to disturb her,” Yukio told Egin boredly. “If I know Shiemi at all she’s trying to mitigate Gaia’s vengeance.” He raised his gun. “Out of respect for her, I won’t blow-up everyone she saves. But I will see that you pay for what you’ve done. I swore it.”

“Yukio?” Egin looked shocked. “We’re family.”

“Rene was your family!” Yukio snapped. ”All he wanted was for you to remember that.”

Egin cringed as Yukio’s eyes began to burn with a hellish flame.

“I asked you nicely to give him a proper burial,” Yukio continued, his voice lowering to a deadly growl. “But you threw him away. Family is important. So you and I are going to get Rene back.”

* * *

Amaimon crouched on the back of a seat and glared menacingly at all the children crammed on board until they found seats. Then he turned to Neuhaus. “I’m going back for my priestess.”

Neuhaus shook his head. “There are too many others counting on us and eventually the True Cross will realize that this is the is the one exit where their agents are being taken out rather than blockaded. We can’t wait for six people.”

“Then go,” Amaimon snapped. “We’ll make our own way to the World Seed.”

“You and Gaia are the only ones among us who can open the way,” Neuhaus argued.

Amaimon snarled in frustration. “Call Big Brother, Mephisto Pheles,” he said after a moment. “If we haven’t caught up by the time you get to the World Seed he’ll figure out something.”

“Alright,” Neuhaus surrendered. “Good luck.”

* * *

Shiemi knew she was an insignificant speck standing in front of an avalanche with her hand raised, demanding that it halt but there was no one else. 

She dug in her heels and stood firm. Then Shiemi screamed as Gaia’s power filled her, flooded through her. She wasn’t in the path of the avalanche. She was a tiny channel through which the avalanche would pour, her will a sluice gate that would be torn asunder by the raging torrent.

//Give up Little One, see the futility of what you attempt.//

“No!” Shiemi exclaimed. “I will not simply stand by and allow such a slaughter. If I’m the channel which allows you access to Assiah, I will control what you do with that access. I agreed to save your daughter, not this!” 

But despite Shiemi’s determination she realized almost instantly that she couldn’t simply put a stop to the power flooding into her. She had to channel it somewhere.

//Those who showed kindness when they could and who never acted out of spite. They will be spared.// Shiemi bartered.

Shiemi bit through her lip as Gaia tried to force her to change her mind. She stood firm.

//You will judge them,// Gaia relented. //Each life you will weight in your hands. Or they will all die.//

//I agree.//

* * *

The elevator doors, it’s lock out overridden by Egin’s personal code, slid open revealing the mass grave beneath the Facility. Yukio’s voice calmed, although his eyes still burned. “We’re going to get Rene back. Because we’re family. Now get in the pit!”

“Yukio, you don’t mean it.” Egin began. Yukio’s gun lowered and Egin sighed in relief. 

“Yuri sends her regards Dad,” a dark voice declared from the pit. “You don’t mind if I call you dad, do you?” 

Egin turned slowly. The mass of bodies were slowly shifting. Rearranging themselves into a swirling gate. Rising out of the center of the gate was Rene’s body, his empty eye-socket was filled with blue flames. 

“Satan,” Egin hissed. He turned back to Yukio, “Yukio, you may not agree with everything I’ve done, but he is the enemy of all humanity.”

Yukio just continued to stare.

“Yukio!” Egin exclaimed.

“Shut up!” Yukio snapped. He turned to Satan. “You’re using my cousin’s body as your vessel,” he stated raising his gun. “I’d appreciate it if you’d give it back.”

“Hmm, Yuri’s nephew,” Satan remarked looking down at the flesh he inhabited. “I suppose that’s why it seemed familiar. And part demon as well, no wonder it’s holding up so well.”

Yukio fired into the seething mass of bodies at Satan’s feet. “I said give him back!” he demanded, his eyes burning.

Satan cocked his head to the side, examining Yukio closely. “Your mom was right, there’s more to you than meets the eye kiddo.” He paused and seemed to be listening to something only he could hear. “She says I should try harder to get along with you. And besides, I have pressing business with the old man,” he said. “Throw him in and you can have this one.”

“Yukio, that’s a dead body!” Egin exclaimed. “You wouldn’t trade me for-” 

 

“Who’s fault is it that he’s dead?” Yukio demanded. He switched clips and fired an explosive round into the ground at Egin’s feet. The blast knocked him into the pit, arms extended from the roiling mass and slowly began to pull Egin under while he screamed.

Satan stroded across the surface of the gate. Yukio walked out to the edge of the precipice to meet him. Satan stretched a hand up to Yukio and Yukio crouched at the edge and stretched his hand out until his fingers brushed Rene’s. A moment later Yukio had Rene’s hand firmly in his.

“I’ll be seeing you kiddo,” Satan said as he withdrew from Rene’s body. Yukio pulled it free from the pit then settled Rene over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Egin’s screams continued to echo through the cavern as the bodies of his victims bore him under. Yukio walked to the elevator, he didn’t look back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helike: Real city in Greece, submerged by a tsunami in 373 B.C. Legend has it that Posidon sank the city because they refused to give a statue of him to the Ionian colonists.
> 
> Tripura: Three mythical cities in India, destroyed by Shiva for impiousness.
> 
> Ys: Mythical City in Brittany, destroyed by the devil for it’s sinful ways.
> 
> The Pillars of Iram: City in the Quran, destroyed by God for corruption.
> 
> Sodom and Gomorrah: Biblical cities destroyed by God for sinfulness.


	18. Exit Strategies

“It’s done,” Shiemi and Gaia stated in a strange dual voice.

The vines enshrouding Saul withered and fell away leaving him staring, glassy-eyed into nothing, shivering violently. A vine snaked into the infirmary from the hallway, wrapped around Saul’s ankle and dragged him away.

“What’s going to happen to him?” Maria asked.

“Those we have spared will be left in the forest for their allies to find,” Gaia stated. “The bodies of the condemned will be entombed here forever along with their sins.”

Shima shrugged. “Well then lets get us and those last two kids out of here.” He took Saul’s keys from Shiemi’s hand as the glow of Gaia’s power began to diminish then walked across the room and unlocked the restraints on the patient beds freeing a horned eight-year-old boy and a snake-haired eleven-year-old girl. He smiled easily at the two kids. “What do ya say we blow this dump?” 

After a moment the children dragged their awestruck gaze away from Gaia to blink at Shima in puzzlement.

The last of Gaia’s power withdrew and Shiemi collapsed to the floor sobbing bitterly.

Shima bit his lip then gestured Echidna and Maria over. “I want you guys to meet your grandma and your aunt,” he told the kids in a friendly voice. “They’re going to help you out of here okay?”

Echidna stared at the two children with a look of wonder. As she reached out to stroke their faces Shima picked up Shiemi bridal-style. “Time’s a wastin,” he reminded them lightly.

Maria gently urged the smaller of the two children to wrap his arms around her neck. Then, spreading her abbreviated wings for balance she picked him up and slowly started toward the door. Echidna wrapped the last few feet of her lower coils around the girl and lifted her off the bed. 

The hallways in the Facility were rapidly becoming impassible; choked with an explosion of plant-life; the stairwells were the same. Shima, Echidna and Maria had to pick their way through the overgrowth while carrying Shiemi and the two children. By the time they reached the thirteenth floor landing it was clear that there was no way the heavily pregnant Maria would be able to make the climb to the top of the mountain while carrying an eight-year-old.

Shima looked down at Shiemi. She’d buried her face against his shoulder and he could feel her tears soaking through his shirt. “Put the kid on my back,” he sighed. “I’ll make it, somehow.” 

And on they trudged. The fourteenth floor, fifteenth, twentieth… Shima was gasping for breath, his awareness narrowed down to his precious burdens and the next step in front of him. Then the child on his back was being lifted away. Amaimon was standing in front of him holding the older of the children while Echidna relieved Shima of the smaller child’s weight. The plants choking the passageway bent back to make way for the Earth King.

“Hurry,” Amaimon ordered. “Mother and Shiemi are half-merged already. They need to separate before it goes any further, before Shiemi loses dominance.”

Shima nodded automatically, barely comprehending anything that had been said. But when Amaimon started back up the stairs Shima gamely forced himself to keep the pace.

* * *

Shura lay back, one arm thrown over her eyes as a True Cross doctor examined the self-inflicted goose-egg on her head. 

The man tore his eyes away from the expanse of Shura’s mostly bare torso and smiled reassuringly, “You’re going to be fine. Whoever they were, it seems they went out of their way not to kill anyone up here… Of course it’s very worrying that we still haven’t been able to get access to the Facility or to contact any of the personnel assigned there…”

There was a loud bang as the top door to the Facility was kicked off it’s hinges from the inside. 

The Doctor and all the other uninjured Exorcists leapt to confront the threat. 

Shura rolled on her side and peaked at the action.

Amaimon stomped out of the Facility in full demon-form. The power of a Hell King crackled visibly around him. Echidna slithered to her brother’s side, her wings spread threateningly. Shima, all but obscured by Yamantaka’s flames took Amaimon’s other flank. Maria hung back in the shelter of the door with the two children and Shiemi. 

The Exorcists stared at the trio facing them in shock and Shura didn’t blame them. Most exorcists went their entire career without seeing more than a handful of high-level demons, let alone three at once. A Fury was nothing to scoff at either. And then there was the little girl huddled innocuously between the two small children, host to a being who could effortlessly put a Hell King on his knees, not as blatantly destructive as Satan but a power that reshaped Assiah by simply existing within it, nonetheless. 

One of the Dragoons fired a shaky, poorly aimed round and Amaimon was on them. ‘These aren’t Egin’s men,’ Shura thought at him, her teeth gritted as she forced herself to continue playing injured. ‘Don’t you forget it.’

Amaimon scattered the Exorcists like they were bowling pins. 

Then Shura heard the beating of powerful wings. She stared as a veritable dragon landed on the viewing platform before the statue. The dragon was so large it barely fit on the platform, it’s spread wings and tail extended over the drop. The setting sun caught the dragon’s scales and made them glitter like emeralds. “Pachamama,” Shiemi breathed.

“Earth Lord, Honored Elder Sister Gaia, I am at your service,” Pachamama declared.

At Gaia and Pachamama’s names, the exorcists fell back. Some broke and ran while the majority took cover. Shura heard one person near her muttering about the End of Days.

“This slaughterhouse is dealt with,” Amaimon stated. “We’re leaving.”

“As you command,” Pachamama replied. She crouched, extending a forearm to aid them in mounting. Maria scrambled aboard and Shima handed the two children up to her then boosted Shiemi up. And then he and Echidna scrambled up. Pachamama flapped her wings, strong winds buffeted those on the view platforms. As she began to ascend into the sky, Amaimon turned and leapt after her, grabbing her clawed foot and pulling himself aboard.

For several long minutes no one stirred. Then a brave soul went to check the now open door to the Facility. He found an impassable wall of plant-life bulging out of the stairwell.

* * *

As Pachamama flew to the west she soon passed over a small caravan of buses. 

The buses drove on through the night, they only stopped for gas. Every seat was full, the benches packed, and even more of the escapees stood in the aisles. Most of them were too small to reach the handholds, so they clung to the seats and leaned on one another.

They crossed the Parana River at dawn. Michelle and Neuhaus spelled the drivers and the buses continued their relentless trek. At Agua Clara they stopped for food. Once released from the buses the children fell on the take-out liked starved animals. The La Llorona and two former exorcists tried to impose some sort of order on the meal, to no avail. 

Shortly after the caravan paused for the meal Pachamama landed with the last of the rescue party. 

Even before Amaimon dismounted a small girl with snake-eyes and scaled skin ran up dragging an even smaller, green skinned boy along with her. She grabbed the Earth King’s pant leg with the hand not desperately clutching the other child and exclaimed, “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them - HIM!” The girl took a deep breath and tugged urgently on Amaimon’s pant leg again. “I don’t know where to find him!” she announced with difficulty. 

“Who?” Amaimon asked bluntly.

Meda stared up him, helpless tears welling up in her eyes. 

“Hey!” Amaimon exclaimed. “Someone fix this one! She’s leaking!”

Neuhaus came over and crouched beside Meda and Kermit. “What’s wrong?” he asked, gentling his gruff voice. Shiemi and Shima slid off Pachamama and joined them.

“Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them,” Meda repeated, unable to explain more clearly. As Amaimon said, “Girl’s looking for someone. Don’t know who.”

Neuhaus looked tired. “Your friend wasn’t on one of the buses?” he asked.

Meda shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” Neuhaus said. To himself he muttered, “Can’t say I’m surprised we lost track of a few.” He didn’t mention that there had been some casualties during the escape, even to himself. He reached out and put a hand on Meda’s shoulder, forcing himself to give her a reassuring smile. “How’s the rest of that rhyme go? Isn’t it ‘Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tails behind them’? I’m sure he’ll be alright.”

* * *

It was late afternoon on the day after the attack before Shura was able to slip away from her duties to go looking for Yukio. As the sun set she spotted a thin column of smoke rising from the forest. Shura followed the smoke to a small clearing. 

The smoke rose from an almost burnt out funeral pyre. Yukio knelt nearby. He stared fixedly into the guttering flames.

Shura walked over to him and silently put a hand on his shoulder. When the fire had burned out completely she gave him a light shake. “Come on, it’s time to go.”

Yukio’s eyes never left the remains of the pyre. 

Worried, Shura crouched in front of him, blocking his line of sight as she gave him a stronger shake. “Yukio!” She shook him again, “Wimpy Four-eyes!” 

Yukio stared through her, tears running silently down his face.

Shura stepped back, biting her lip. Yukio always locked down his emotions, buried them inside himself and let them fester. Shura had the feeling that that was what had gone wrong between Yukio and his twin. So it was good to see him grieve, but he seemed so far away. 

Beyond that, if he were going to breakdown, Shura would rather it happen in the relative security of her apartment. So far Yukio was the only survivor who’d worked under the Mountain. Shura paced as she worried. The Grigori had wanted Egin shut down, but appearances needed to be maintained. Shura didn’t want Yukio looking like too good of a scapegoat. The Grigori would want someone to blame and punish, then they could privately sigh with relief and put the whole thing out of mind. They wouldn’t bother with a real investigation, they wouldn’t want to know what really went on in the Facility or care about what had motivated Yukio. If the Grigori ever did learn of the massive escape Yukio had enabled, they wouldn’t look kindly on it. 

“Come on, Scardy-cat,” Shura exclaimed turning back to Yukio. “You can have all the time you need, but lets get you out of here first.”

Shura stopped, her eyes widened. A tiny child with fox-like ears poking out of his russet hair slipped out of the forest and tentatively crept up to Yukio. After a moment he crawled into the older boy’s lap and reached up to touch the tears on his cheek. “Yuki sad?” Kit asked.

Yukio blinked.

Kit wrapped his arms around Yukio’s neck and hugged him tightly. After several moments Yukio gingerly returned the hug. “Thanks,” he said hoarsely. 

Shura sighed in relief. 

After a few minutes Yukio stood up. He slid Kit to the ground and offered the little boy his hand. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

Kit nodded.

“I guess I better find you something to eat,” Yukio said.

* * *

After nearly two and a half solid days of driving the buses dropped the mass of escapees off on a lonely stretch of dirt road near Chivay. 

With Amaimon, Echidna and Pachamama exerting their influence as the Earth Kingdom’s royalty… and with the help of the hundred and fifty former La Llorona and other adults in the party… a small amount of order had been imposed on the largely feral children. So when Amaimon’s hobgoblins and Shiemi’s greenmen expanded the children meekly accepted the offered rides. The hike through the barren Peruvian highlands was quickly accomplished. Once again Shiemi, Shima and Amaimon found themselves standing before the cliffside spring which would eventually grow into the mighty Amazon River.

Pachamama bid them goodbye and Amaimon extended his powers to open the World Seed. A glimmering translucence descended on the spring. One by one the rescue party and escapees stepped through the rock face and disappeared.


	19. Epilogue: Finding Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Mephisto explained about being a demon to Rin it seemed like Mephisto Pheles was the latest in a long string of names that Mephisto has invented to give to humans. Because of that it’s in my head that demons would be unlikely to call him Mephisto. Instead I’ve been trying have them refer to him either by a title or if they’re old, high ranking demons they call him Samuel.

_Delphi_

The path between World Seeds opened up on a vast, perfectly circular room. The group of nearly a thousand rescuer and escapees seemed an insignificant intrusion on the emptiness of the cavern. The ceiling arched overhead, vanishing as it soared beyond the reach of the torches protruding from the smooth, featureless walls every few meters. The floor was basalt, pitch black and polished to a high sheen, the reflected light of the torches against the blackness of the floor made walking across it feel like stepping out into the night sky. A massive, marble sphere sat at the precise center of the cavern floor, it was five meters in diameter and stark white against the blackness of the floor with carved vines wrapped around it. 

“The Omphalos,” Amaimon said but Shiemi needed no explanation. As soon as she’d seen the stone she squirmed free of Shima’s hold, slid down his back and walked out across that midnight floor to lay her hands on the sphere. As soon as she touched it a deep green glow spread from her to illuminate the stone. The excess of Gaia was naturally drawn into the Omphalos. Shiemi could feel the resonance between Gaia and her former body. The girl took a deep breath and started pushing Gaia’s presence from her body into the stone. Gradually Shiemi felt the overwhelming presence within her lessening to a few slender cables. 

//Little One, I cannot let you go,// Gaia stated and the attenuation of their connection halted.

//I kept my promise,// Shiemi protested. 

//I don’t wish to force you, Little One,// Gaia sighed. //But would you have me leave them without a refuge?// She turned Shiemi’s head so they were looking back at the cluster of Facility escapees. //The world is unkind and they are so young.//

The moment Gaia finished speaking all light in the chamber vanished. A moment later the torches sputtered back to life but the refugees were gone. Shiemi heard the firm tapping of heels from the darkness, then the light caught on a white top-hat.

“Samuel, what business have you here?” Gaia demanded as Shiemi asked “Where did everyone go?”

Mephisto turned to Shiemi with a broad grin, “Better to ask where you have gone, my dear. Serious negotiation should not be rushed, so I have moved the two of you back several days so that you may come to an agreement without audience or time pressure.”

“Except for yourself,” Gaia stated. “I ask again Samuel Void-Walker, what is your business here?”

“My Lady Gaia,” Mephisto declared with a courtly bow. “Shiemi-chan is my cute, naive little student. I would be remiss in my duties as her instructor if I allowed this to proceed without offering mediation.” 

“Be wary of him Little One,” Gaia stated. “The Void-Walker always has his own agenda.”

“I know,” Shiemi said softly. “But so do you. And, if I understand properly, I’m not a suitable host for Sir Pheles.” 

Mephisto chuckled. “Very good Shiemi-chan. You are correct, and I tell you truly, the two of us are utterly incompatible. You never need fear me in that respect. The Lady Gaia is drawn to nurturers and to those who possess a will as stubborn as a stone. I am an incorrigible libertine, drawn to those who would experience everything, without restraint.” He shrugged. “It is convenient for me, the hosts who are compatible with me are also those most likely to desire what I offer in return: Life immortal, a life not ordinary, a chance to cast off the constraints of humanity. But you do not wish to merge with Gaia, do you Shiemi? And that is the heart of why the two of you are at odds.” 

“Samuel, I would have your intentions in this matter,” Gaia demanded sternly. 

Mesphisto pasted on an ill-fitting look of innocence, “My only concern is discharging my duty to my student.”

Shiemi sighed, “Sir Pheles, even I don’t believe that.”

“Honesty and openness are highly overrated,” Mephisto tsked. “I would have the Lady Gaia’s good will in the coming conflict with my father. I would not deal so unfairly as to alienate you My Lady. But Shiemi-chan is a most valued piece in my game against him,” he smiled warmly at Shiemi. “I would not choose to sacrifice her so early in the game, not even to draw a power such as you to my side. Thus I am neutral: It benefits me to see that you are both made happy.” 

“How do I trust one such as you?” Gaia asked. “You who were once known as Satan’s most ardent follower and who is now the most consistent thorn in his side. What did you see in the Void that caused such a change in you. Who do you now serve?”

Mephisto smiled disingenuously. “Did I change? Have I not always been a proponent of free will and an uninterrupted supply of fresh anime? Or whatever clever thing humans entertain themselves with at any particular moment in time… I cannot imagine anything less interesting than for Assiah and Gehenna to forcibly be made one. Even the endless loop of Assiah’s repeated creation and destruction is not so boring, although you know I do not favor such a thing. But that is quite enough about me, I am simply the mediator here.”

Shiemi took a deep breath. “We both want the children to be safe,” she said. “That’s our common ground.”

“Excellent start,” Mephisto cheered. “My lady, is there anything you can think of? Any means of accomplishing your goal without merging with my student?” 

“There is a way,” Gaia suggested after a long moment of silence. “What do you know of the history of this place? Of the Oracle of Delphi?”

* * *

The upper right corner of the TV screen switched to a picture of a lush profusion of plant life. “People are calling it the Garden of Amahara, or even the Garden of Eden. But is it a threat?” the newscaster asked, staring seriously into the camera. “In mid August people in the Greek city of Delphi awoke to find the ruins the ancient wonder fully restored to it’s former grandeur and a new Oracle of Delphi installed in the temple along with nearly a thousand followers who have come to be know as the Cult of Gaia.” 

“In the days following that eventful morning, people in the surrounding areas noticed vigorous new plant growth, including species of plants never before catalogued. When questioned representatives of the Cult claimed that the ‘increased fertility of the land’ was a side effect of the restoration of the goddess Gaia to her ancient home. While skeptical of the cult’s claims local farmers welcomed the effect… Intially.” The station switched to a scenic mountain road, which had been rendered practically impassable due to the profusion of plant life bursting through the asphalt. Then came a montage of pictures of sidewalks, city streets, canals all cracked and broken by intruding plants. “The effect continues to spread outward from the Temple.” 

“Then there are the questions about the Cult itself,” the newscaster continued. “On the surface the Cult’s spokespersons appear amiable and cooperative with official inquires. However, te majority of the so-called Cult Members are minors, infants even. The Cult members have claim refugee status, and have been working with various religious organizations to find adoptive homes for the many parentless infants in the Cult. But the question remains: Where did these people come from? Who are the parents? Visitors to the compound have reported that the children are nearly feral, which begs the question what sort of conditions were they exposed to before their sudden arrival in Delphi? And are the older Cult members truly the rescuers they claim to be?”

* * *

_Rio de Janeiro_

Shura glanced up at the sound of her guestroom door opening. Yukio walked out dressed in his school uniform. Kit trailed after him wearing a pair of coveralls over a bright yellow tee-shirt. 

“Going out?” Shura asked, not expecting an answer. Yukio hadn’t spoken to anyone except Kit since cremating Rene’s body. 

A handful of other survivors from the Facility had been found over the days following its destruction, all of them had been in various states of shock so Yukio’s behavior hadn’t stood out too badly. The most coherent of the survivors had spoken of an overwhelming presence invading her mind, being evaluated and judged. She’d walked away with no impairment but with no memories of the last year of her life. The fungi overrunning the Facility had resisted all efforts to gain access. Attempts by the Order to hack or burn their way in had only caused it to multiple more quickly. The few survivors couldn’t say what had happened there. Outside of those involved in the rescue, all knowledge of the captive demons had been erased.

Once she realized what the situation was, Shura had dragged Yukio off to the Academy medical center where he’d been lumped in with the other survivors, put on medical leave and released under supervision. While Shura had been moving Yukio’s belongings from his dorm room to her guest room, Yukio slipped out of her apartment. Shura had found him on the way back home with bags several bags children’s clothing and toys. The next day a crib and highchair were delivered to her door. 

The three of them quickly fell into a pattern. Yukio took care of Kit, seeing to the little boy’s needs and taking him out on walks to get him used to the world outside of the facility. And Shura took care of Yukio, slamming plates of food in front of him at regular intervals and bullying him into changing clothes and showering every other day or so. Shura had a feeling that her self-assigned task would have been a lot harder if Kit hadn’t taken to trying to feed Yukio when he simply sat at the table and stared at his plate. For his part Yukio had spent the last month doing his best to ignore any part of the world that was not connected to Kit.

So Shura nearly fell over in shock when Yukio turned to her and said, “I’ve missed too much school already.” 

He went into the kitchen, filled a sippy cup with milk, made up a few sandwiches and some snacks which he tucked into his bookbag, then he put some crayons and coloring books in a small backpack and helped Kit put it on. Finally Yukio picked up broad brimmed, floppy hat from the table beside the door. He smoothed back Kit’s hair and ears then dropped the hat on his head and tied it beneath the little boy’s chin. “You have to keep your hat on at all times,” he warned Kit.

“‘Kay Yuki,” the little boy agreed solemnly and took Yukio’s hand and they left.

Yukio walked across campus to his advisor’s office. “Sir?” he inquired politely standing in the door.

The older man smiled. “Mr. Okumura, I’m glad to see you’re feeling better.” Then he noticed the almost-three-year-old half hidden behind Yukio. “Who’s this?” he asked.

In response to the scrutiny, Kit hugged Yukio’s leg and stuck two fingers in his mouth. 

“It’s a long story,” Yukio said. “The short version is that Kit is my cousin’s son. He was kidnapped and Rene was killed getting him back. I wanted to ask your permission to take him to class with me. He’s very quiet, he won’t disturb the lectures.” Yukio forced a smile, “I wish he were more rambunctious, honestly. Once he acclimates I’ll find something to do about daycare, but for right now I’d like to keep him close. If you’ll allow it?” 

The advisor gave Kit a sympathetic look. “We’ll see how it works out.”

* * *

_Gehenna_

A flock of Coaltars descended into a massive stone hall. “You’ve collected every last ash?” a disembodied voice demanded harshly. Then in an entirely different tone the voice tsked. “That boy is so difficult to give presents to.”

“Dear, you could have explained yourself better,” a softer voice reprimanded gently. “Did you expect him to just keep it around? Cremation is normal in Japan.” 

“I was distracted,” the first voice protested. “I wasn’t expecting him be more reasonable than his brother; he’s so much more human.”

The coaltars swirled together at the center of the hall forming a vortex. As they spun closer and closer together blue flames surrounded them. Then in a flash the Coaltars disappeared, in their place stood a bewildered young man. “Where am I” he demanded looking around wildly. “What’s going on?” 

A cape draped itself around his slim shoulders. The youth’s several times broken tail twitched erratically, He twisted around searching for a someone to confront. His single eye was white rimmed and panicky. Blue flames swirled in the empty socket where his other eye had been. “Who are you?”

“Well, I suppose you could call me your infamous Aunt Yuri,” the second voice said sounding amused. “We’ll be sending you back to Yukio just as soon as we can manage it,” she said. “Quite frankly, I’m worried about him and I’ll feel much more comfortable when we can keep a parental eye on him.”


End file.
